Dam It All
a damsel in distress
No, this is not a drowning girl who has had too much plastic surgery. The doll is, however, part of what I believe to have been one of the more effective demos at Canoecopia
This simple tank, sitting in the main hallway, eloquently demonstrated the dangers of going over head dams (which are aplenty around our state).
Standing off to the side, one easily sees what the boater headed down stream does not. Lurking beneath the surface is the hole, or dynamic flow that can easily trap a boat and/or person long enough to cause drowning.
The set up was simple, the message obvious and effective. So....
Paddle Safe...
DS
2 comments:
Good lesson! I've a teaching friend who got caught in one of these things with her daughter. The girl was spit out after a few turns, but the mother wasn't. The daughter was unable to get to her to pull her out because of the current... Eventually - and fortunately - my friend found that doing a spread-eagle slowed the rolling and she got herself out, but until that moment happened, she assumed it was all over.
It is amazing, too that emergency responders don't always recognize the hazards associated with low head dams. Every year there are reports of responders who think that they can motor up to victims and pluck them out. Most of the time these boats get sucked into the hydraulic along with the swimmer.
Dangerous stuff, indeed.
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