SAPPHO — A 20-year-old woman from Beaver drowned in the rain-swollen Sol Duc River in a rafting accident on Monday.
A second woman in the raft survived.
The dead woman was identified as Christina Watson.
The survivor was identified as Jennifer Cooper, 21, of Forks.
Clallam County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Lenahan said the two women were rafting on the Sol Duc River near U.S. Highway 101 milepost 203 at Sappho about 1:40 p.m.
The raft had gone downstream about a quarter mile when it struck a partially submerged tree that was blown down by the recent storms, he said.
Watson became entangled in the tree and went under the water while Cooper was able to get ashore near a house and contacted the residents, Lenahan said.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office was called shortly before 2 p.m. and responded along with Clallam County Fire District No. 6, Olympic National Park, Elwha White Water Rescue Team, U.S. Coast Guard, Washington State Patrol, Forks Search and Rescue and Forks Police Department.
”There’s not a lot we could do. They were just out for recreation. It certainly was an accident,” Lenahan said.
Watson was a 2004 graduate of Forks High School and worked as a waitress at Moore Trading Co. in Beaver for almost three years, authorities said.
”Christina was a very, very outgoing person, all the customers loved her. She had been friends with me and my wife since we moved here in 2001,” said her boss, Lee Moore.
