Teens rescued from vehicle stranded in Mat River

Posted by matsublog

Posted: June 10, 2009 - 4:21 pm

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Teens rescued from vehicle stranded in Mat River: Mat-Su emergency responders walk Jessica Entsminger through a shallow spot in the Matanuska River after she and two friends got stuck.
From Rindi White in Wasilla:
Three teenage girls were rescued by Mat-Su Borough and Palmer emergency responders Wednesday afternoon after getting stranded in part of the braided Matanuska River just downstream of the Matanuska River Bridge near Palmer on the Old Glenn Highway.

The girls were uninjured and a tow truck responded that afternoon to pull the 1994 Ford Explorer they were driving out of the river.

Christal Cope, 18, said she and friends Sarah Keller, 16 and Jessica Entsminger, 17, had been camping at the river with friends. On Wednesday morning two teenage boys they were camping with were driving around the flat riverbed and apparently got stuck in a side channel of the Matanuska River.

In an effort to pull their friends out, Cope said she, Keller and Entsminger drove her Explorer north of the boys’ vehicle and looked for a spot to enter the river. Cope said they chucked rocks to test the water depth and thought it was shallow. But they drove into an untested spot that was deeper than expected. Water went over the bumper and she was unable to reverse, she said.

Cope said she and Entsminger tried to push the vehicle out but the current pushed them downstream. Entsminger climbed out onto a log and Cope got back into the vehicle, where water seeped in to about the level of the front seats. Cope said Keller climbed out of the vehicle and onto the back bumper while Cope bailed water inside and yelled for help.

On the nearby shore, Nicolle Wirtanen had seen the whole thing happen, starting at about 10 a.m. She was there to picnic with her family and said she walked near the vehicles to offer help.

“I said I can’t tow you out, but I can call someone,” she said.

Wirtanen called tow trucks to try to assist the girls but Cope said the towing companies wanted more money upfront than she had with her.

“They wouldn’t come unless I had $150,” Cope said.

Wirtanen said she tried to get Cope to leave the car, but she refused.

The wide riverbed was busy with families picnicking and dogs and children splashing through the water in the sunshine Wednesday afternoon. Cope said several people had driven by, but laughed at them instead of offering help. Having just moved into an apartment and only recently paid for the Explorer, she said she worried about the cost of calling for help.

But someone else, she didn’t know who, eventually made the decision for her and called emergency responders, who came with rescue equipment and a raft. After carrying life vests and helmets to the girls, responders walked them around the south side of the vehicle, where the water was just above knee deep.

Standing on shore, the girls joked as they plotted revenge on the friends they had tried to assist. After Cope’s Explorer got stuck, they realized the boys hadn’t been stuck after all, only out of gas.

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