PORT ANGELES — Four fishermen escaped a rapidly rising Elwha River on Tuesday afternoon, two by wading out and the other two courtesy of a sheriff’s rescue boat.
About 1 p.m. Tuesday, two 18-year-old Port Angeles men, Kyle Ward and Eric Kovatch Jr., set out to go fishing for coho salmon where Lower Elwha River Road meets the Elwha River, near its mouth.
They walked upstream about a half-mile to a small island, wading across three streams, the first of which was the inlet for the Elwha tribal fish hatchery.
“When we crossed the hatchery inlet, it was not even knee-deep and clear water,” Ward said.
The two fished for about two hours, with other fishermen nearby, past the third creek south of the river’s mouth on the east side.
Then the river level rose “dramatically” about 3 p.m., Elwha Tribal Police Chief Mike Lasnier said.
U.S. Geological Survey data shows the river rising from 11.25 feet that morning to a sudden reading of 13.97 feet at 3 p.m., when the pair used a cellular telephone to request rescue.
The pair had noticed the water was rising fast and that the other fishermen had started heading back to where their vehicles were parked.
Kovatch was wearing hip boots, and Ward was wearing chest waders.
But by the time they reached the second creek, the water was deeper than Kovatch could manage without taking in water in his hip boots.
Ward, six inches taller than Kovatch and wearing chest waders, piggy-backed Kovatch across the stream.
But the water was so deep it came in the sides of his chest waders, he said.
“We had been wondering how high the inlet crossing would be,” Kovatch said. “It was worse than I ever imagined, there was no way we were going to try it.”
The pair used Ward’s cell phone to call Kovatch’s father, Port Angeles police Sgt. Eric Kovatch, who called the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department’s River Rescue Unit.
Deputies Gary Velie and Larry Dunn were dispatched about 3:15 p.m.
—————–
The rest of the story appears in the Wednesday Peninsula Daily News. Click on SUBSCRIBE to get the PDN delivered to your home or office.
