‘It was too late’: Squamish Valley boating tragedy survivor recounts incident

详细摘要

One of the survivors says the boat was pushed sideways by a large branch and was pulled into a log that crossed the opening of the creek, causing it to overturn.

A survivor of a boating incident in the Squamish Valley earlier this week that killed three people says it’s been a “challenging” ordeal.

The incident happened on Thursday, with Squamish RCMP confirming a day later that eight people were on board the boat. Five were rescued.

At approximately 1:52 p.m., police say they were called about a boat incident in the area north of Vancouver. Due to elevated water levels and challenging weather conditions, search and rescue and any recovery efforts were extremely difficult and unsafe. Search and recovery operations resumed Friday.

Spencer Seabrooke told Global News he and the other seven people were on board a fan boat trying to help others caught up in the flooding hitting B.C. this past week.

“It is very challenging, everybody has lost friends and family on the boat,” Seabrooke said in an interview.

He said the boat was in a “shallow area” that is off the main river when the incident occurred.

According to Seabrooke, the boat was pushed sideways by a large branch and was pulled into a log that crossed the opening of the creek.

“We hit it sideways and the right side of the boat popped up and the left side went under and it grabbed and turned the boat over and sucked it down underneath,” he said.

All eight people on board were thrown off the boat, with Seabrooke saying he was briefly sucked under the log but was able to pop back up on the other side. He fought to get to shore and, once out of the water, ran down the path watching the others struggle.

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