June 18, 2009

Two people were transported to Crozer Chester Medical Center Sunday following a tubing accident on the Brandywine Creek in Chadds Ford Township.

Rescue teams were called to the creek for the second time in less than a week after a group of about 21 scouts – boys and girls – ran into trouble while tubing the creek that was still running hard and fast after rain storms the previous week.

Neither the identities of the injured, nor the extent of the injuries, were released.

Squads from Concordville, Kennett and Longwood responded to the call, with Kennett and Longwood putting boats into the water. One of the victims was transported in one of the boats back to the museum parking lot that was used as a staging area for the rescue.

One unidentified Boy Scout, from Troop 443 of Boothwyn, said some of the tubers let go of the ropes and people got tangled up in trees and brush. The group came a stop about 200 to 300 yards south of the old railroad bridge at the Brandywine River Museum.

One of the adults on the trip was Chris Imburgia from Girl Scout Troop 51468 out of Boothwyn. She said the more experienced tubers were in the lead, but they started whistling and moving to the left bank of the creek when they realized the water was too rough and moving too fast for the group as a whole.

Imburgia said there was some panic within the group and that not everyone was sure how to get out of the tubes.

She said the trip was planned about two or three weeks earlier and that she had not heard about the fatal kayaking accident of last Tuesday.

In Tuesday’s incident, two brothers were attempting to kayak the creek after a severe thunderstorm when their kayaks went under at a low-head dam just north of the Brandywine Picnic Park. Chris Miller, 28, of Yonkers N.Y., was pulled from the creek that afternoon and was pronounced dead at Chester County Hospital. The body of the other brother, 34-year-old Chad Miller, from Wilmington, was found Saturday.

Safety on the Brandywine Creek

Zeke Hubbard, of Northbrook Canoe Co. in Pocopson Township, said safety on the creek is essential and is a matter of both common sense and checking with those who know the Brandywine.

When in doubt if the creek is safe, stay out of it.

Hubbard said the creek is a Class One Waterway, meaning it is has low-lying tree limbs, light rapids, water that is relatively placid and calm.

“You can walk out of it. There’s no problem with any major current.”

But, would be boaters need to take some precautions.

“Check the water conditions with your local livery, people who know the water. They can tell you what the levels are and if it’s safe or not safe to get in. It’s just common sense. If you look at the Brandywine and it’s turning chocolate, you can figure it’s in flood stage and it will suck you down and pin you,” Hubbard said.

Brandywine Outfitters, Wilderness Canoe Trips and Northbrook are the three groups on the water who know what’s safe and what isn’t. Hubbard said to check with any one of them to see if the creek is safe that day. And if they’re not sending people out, it’s best to stay on land that day.

He closed Northbrook Sunday because the creek was still too fast and rough for safe activities.

Hubbard stressed a difference between floodwater and white water. He said people get confused between floodwater and whitewater.

“Flood water will suck you down into a rolling ball or cylinder. If you get caught in that cylinder it pins you down against the bottom, and you stay there. White water pushes out on a flat, horizontal [plane.] You put your feet down stream and pushes you into an eddy, like a safe floating area behind a rock. … White water will spit you out into a safe area.”

Hubbard said the most dangerous time on the Brandywine is when it’s beginning to get into the flood stage.

“It’s still within its banks and the speed of the water has picked up. And that’s what causes the mud; the water goes down and picks up the mud, flips sediment up off the bottom.

He said the creek was at that most dangerous stage last Tuesday when the Miller brothers had their accident. Compounding that was the fact they went over a low-head dam. Going over such dams will suck a boat down bow first, then grab boat and occupants in that rolling cylinder.

The Web site www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/lowhead.htm discusses low-head dams in an article by Virgil Chambers, executive director, National Safe Boating Council.

According to the article, the dams pool water as it flows over the top of the dam, then drops to a lower level:

“This drop creates a hydraulic, which is a backwash that traps and recirculates anything that floats. Boats and people have been caught in this backwash. A person caught in the backwash of a low-head dam will be carried to the face of the dam, where the water pouring over it will wash him down under to a point downstream called the boil. The boil is that position where the water from below surfaces and moves either downstream or back toward the dam. A person who is caught in a low head dam struggles to the surface, where the backwash once again carries him to the face of the dam, thus continuing the cycle.”

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission Web site (http://www.fish.state.pa.us/safety.htm) offers the following information for people considering paddle sports:

Paddling sports are very popular recreational water sports in Pennsylvania. There are dangers that can be lessened with knowledge, preparation and practice. Primary hazards are capsizing, swamping or just falling out of the boat. Keep in mind that paddling is a “get wet” sport.

Paddling Tips:

• Wear your life jacket. Some 80 percent of all recreational boating fatalities happen to people who are not wearing a life jacket.

• Expect to get wet and dress properly. Even the best paddlers sometimes capsize or swamp their boats.

• Be prepared to swim. If the water looks too hazardous to swim in, don’t go paddling.

• If you capsize, hold on to your boat, unless it presents a life-threatening situation.

• Scout ahead whenever possible. Know the river. Avoid surprises.

• Be prepared for the weather. Get a forecast before you go.

• Wear wading shoes or tennis shoes with wool, polypropylene, pile or neoprene socks.

• Never take your boat over a low-head dam.

• Portage (carry) your boat around any section of water about which you feel uncertain.

• Never boat alone. Boating safety increases with numbers.

• Keep painter lines (ropes tied to the bow) and any other ropes coiled and secured.

• Never tie a rope to yourself or to another paddler, especially a child.

• Kneel to increase your stability before entering rougher water, like a rapid.

• If you collide with an obstruction, lean toward it.

File a float plan with a reliable person, indicating where you are going and when you will return. Remember to contact the person when you have returned safely.

Boy Scouts are supposed to make a positive impression on people and Vito Jacono has done just that.

Jacono, from Birmingham Township, just finished his Eagle Scout project of putting in a brick walkway at the Chadds Ford Historical Society. Gone are 550 square feet of gravel and dirt, replaced with the same area of new brick pavers on the front of the Barn Visitors Center. Also gone is the step up into the building. All of which floored CFHS Executive Director Ginger Tucker.

Jacono finished the work last Sunday, and Tucker just returned from vacation on Monday.

“I’m speechless,” Tucker said. “Not only does it look fabulous, but it makes a statement that I wasn’t anticipating and I wasn’t expecting. When you walk up and see that gorgeous walk, somehow it says, ‘We’re serious about what we do.’ And I never expected that. It gives a sense of arrival to our visitors and a sense of our professionalism. I’ve always felt we are a professional organization and I always felt we looked very professional, but I didn’t realize how the old walkway subtracted from the way we are conceived, the impression we give our visitors. I’m just overwhelmed.”

Jacono, who will be entering his senior year at Unionville High School, spent about three weekends on the physical part of the work, he said. The paving bricks cost about $3,000, but he did get a break from Glen Mills Sand and Gravel.

The pavers start where the old step had been at the main entrance to the center, come down toward the fence, then flair out to the left and right, but stop before they reach the parking area.

Jacono said his project called for doing only the 550 square feet and he hopes that other scouts will choose to pick up where he left off to complete the job as part of their Eagle Scout projects.

The Birmingham Friends Meeting was the site for the second annual Peace Fair designed to bring awareness to the need for clearing out unexploded ordnance and to raise money for the purchase of a piece of surveying equipment that also serves as a land mine detector.

Last year’s event raised enough money to buy two detectors, but the manufacturer matched that and four detectors were sent to Nepal to clear mines left over from a civil war there.

But, last year’s event also brought in a person who decided to take an active part in the effort.

Hadley Dole, 16, of Landenberg, has taken up the cause. Dole is going into 10th grade at Kennett High School and is raising money for the mine detectors as his high school project, a requirement for graduation.

Dole was at last year’s Peace Fair and decided to get involved with the project. He’s been able to raise $725 so far this spring and said he’ll be working on the project at least into his senior year.

“I might do it afterward if I have time,” he said.

His goal is to raise money for as many land mine detectors as he can, he said.

The detectors cost $1,041 each.

Dole said he wanted to get involved after attending last year’s event and speaking with Frank Lenik, a Salem County, N.J. surveyor and clerk of the Woodstown Friends Meeting, who several years ago was pivotal in working with Schonstedt Instrument Co. in working out the matching program.

Lenik discovered that one piece of surveying equipment he uses to detect metal corner markers can also detect land mines. He said Schonstedt already had a matching program for large equipment, and was able to work with the company to get a matching program for the metal detectors.

According to Lenik, 98 percent of the people killed or maimed by the old weapons are farmers and children.

Since the project began in 2007, Lenik’s efforts have led, directly or indirectly to 277 detectors being sent to more than 30 countries.

“When you make a donation to anything … you always wonder how many hands are going to touch that donation before it actually arrives at the intention you have for your money. The fantastic thing about this is the Peace fair here raised enough money for two detectors. The company matched it. They sent four detectors and they went straight to the people of Nepal where they were needed,” Lenik said. “No money gets lost along the way. … The money is going right where it’s needed and I think that’s a wonderful thing.”

While Lenik downplays his role in the efforts, the New Jersey Society of Professional Land Surveyors named Lenik its Surveyor of the Year in 2009.

During the fair, Lenik demonstrated the use of the detector and there was a release of peace doves by Heartwings Dove Releases of Landenberg.