Taylor River Rescue

The Taylor River is in flood. The waters rose dramatically overnight, The Omaka Airfield ford is out and the new railway bridge shown in this image, although yet to have the rails laid on it, is almost under water.
In the past few weeks since the floods at Easter, large machinery has reshaped the river bed, spreading shingle and thus making for a wide shallow flood-way.
Further downstream and almost into town the riverbanks are higher where the waters have, over time, gouged out the shingle bed. There are specially laid large rock edgings to the stream itself and because of the narrow width the water is very deep and can move at a dangerous rate. During flood events the water overflows and spreads out all over the wide floodway
It was in one of these areas this morning that a 12 year old schoolgirl attempted to cross a footbridge over the river with her bicycle. She was swept off the bridge and away downstream in an instant. A young man of 17 was being given a lift to college in his mother’s car. He saw the girl being swept downstream, shot out of the car, raced alongside e the roaring river calling out to the girl and stripping off his clothes as he ran. Another man, who turned out to be a tri-athlete joined in the rescue effort. Both men ended up in the raging river and managed to bring the schoolgirl to the river bank and safety.
The 17 year old hero is Angus Pauley and he is head-boy of our Marlborough Boys’ College. The tri-athlete, also an “Ironman” competitor, is Jeremy McKenzie. You may have seen both of them being interviewed on TV One tonight.
Well done to both men. They are heroes. They together, saved that little girl’s life.
The lesson to be learned here, in my view, is to never under-estimate the power of a river. The Taylor is normally considered to be a “safe” river, slow running most of the time but overnight can turn into a dangerous roaring monster.