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UWHARRIE A church youth group on a faith-building “survivor challenge” got into rough water Thursday, triggering a massive rescue effort on the Uwharrie River in Montgomery County.
Emergency workers rescued all 30 boaters – six adults and the rest children 10 to 12 years old – with no injuries reported.
Montgomery County Emergency Management Director Alan Griffin said one of the adults used a cell phone to call 911 from a boat, saying the group had gotten separated in fast-moving water.
At least some members of the group are from the Living Word Family Church of Wake Forest, just north of Raleigh.
The children were participating in an event called the Five7 “Survivor Challenge,” organized by God's Country Outfitters of Stanly County, which hosts outdoor adventure experiences for religious groups.
The company did not return messages left on an answering machine Thursday night.
A listing on the church's Web site described the three-day event in the Uwharrie National Forest: “You will overcome your fears through physical challenges, build community through group activities, and grow in confidence to do God's work.”
Around lunch time on Thursday, the group launched kayaks and canoes into the Uwharrie River at Low Water Bridge, a narrow wooden structure near N.C. 109, about eight miles northwest of Troy and 50 miles east of Charlotte. The river is near Morrow Mountain State Park and the Uwharrie National Forest. Low Water Bridge is a well-known access spot to the river for kayakers and canoeists.
The river can be unpredictable, emergency director Griffin said, especially after it rains.
“In a dry spell, you can walk across it in places,” he said about an hour after the rescue. “On a day like today, it's four to five feet deep, with rapids.”
The water was so high Thursday that Low Water Bridge was completely submerged beneath clay-colored water, moving about as fast as a person can run.
Park rangers told the Observer that the water level rose several inches soon after the group got into the water.
Authorities were called at 12:16 p.m. and told that between 22 and 30 people were in need of rescue. Cell phone communication is spotty in that part of Montgomery County, and for a while, it appeared as if a large portion of the group was missing. Griffin said there were also initial reports that boaters were stuck in trees, though he said that turned out to be false.
“Our expectations were that they just got separated,” Griffin said. “But we had to assume the worst.”
Swift-water rescue teams from Montgomery, Cabarrus and Randolph counties sped to the river to help. N.C. National Guard helicopters carrying crews that included firefighters from Charlotte, and N.C. Highway Patrol helicopters were also summoned, though those calls they were ultimately canceled.
Randolph County Emergency Management officials said seven people were rescued several hundred yards from Low Water Bridge. Others were picked up where the river dumped into the Pee Dee River and Lake Tillery, about four miles downstream from the bridge.
Investigators were still unclear late Thursday what caused the water to rise.
A state database shows one dam on the Uwharrie River, a 45-foot high structure impounding Robert L. Reece Lake in Randolph County near Farmer, about 11 miles upstream from Low Water Bridge.
The state data shows more than 30 dams on Uwharrie tributaries in Randolph County. Dams are designed to release water when levels get too high in their impoundments.
Heavy rain has fallen in parts of North Carolina in recent days, causing some flash flooding and causing stream and river levels to rise. The (Raleigh) News & Observer contributed.
