Summer dangers: Currents near dams, waterfalls can be 'drowning machines'

BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y. - Water flowing over a small rural dam or dropping from a country waterfall can look scenic and beautiful, but they can also be very deadly.

Waterfalls and dams - especially when there's been a lot of rain - can form extra strong current and whirlpools that can drown people walking, swimming or boating in the water, according to several experts.

Last weekend, two kayakers - Robert Mead, 27, and Joseph Mead, 25 - died when their boats capsized and they were sucked under the rushing water near a dam on the Seneca River in Baldwinsville.

A week before, a swimmer - Kayla M. Fulmer, 19 - drowned when she became trapped in a whirlpool-like current formed near a waterfall at Blue Hole in Otisco.

Currently about 220 people have died swimming, boating or walking in waters near small dams since 2000, according to Bruce Tschantz, professor emeritus at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville who has studied these structures called low-head dams. (Similar statistics for waterfall-related drownings could not be located.)

"People tend to overestimate their skills and underestimate the forces that these dams create from the water," Tschantz said.

These dams tend to look small from the surface, giving the appearance of tranquil harmlessness, said Charles Kroll, professor at State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse

"It's not like you have a huge dam with a huge whitewater rolling at the bottom," Kroll said. "A lot of times these dams are only 10 feet high or less."

The dangers are similar with dams and waterfalls, experts said.

Water coming over the crest of a dam or waterfall goes straight down, hits the riverbed, then bounces back upward, said Kelsey Bracewell, safety education and instruction coordinator at the American Canoe Association. Once back near the top, the current gets drawn back toward the source of the falling water, creating a near inescapable loop as it gets pushed to the bottom again.

"It becomes a drowning machine," Bracewell said.

These currents form at the base of waterfalls, around boulders and even in small streams, but the ones at the bases of low head dams are particularly dangerous, said Theodore Endreny, chair of the environmental resources engineering department at SUNY-ESF. The dangerous currents near dams span the width of a large body of water, making them more difficult to escape.

In addition to being trapped in the currents, the water is dangerous because people can suffer hypothermia or get hit by debris - logs, trash, tires - that are also stuck in the currents, experts said.

"People tend to bump into the hard surfaces, such as the dam itself, and get hit by these debris that's half floating, half submerged under water, and also rotating themselves," Tschantz said. "It's really a bad environment."

The currents and debris make it extremely dangerous for rescuers too, the experts said. After a storm, entire trees can get caught in the circular currents that can hit rescue boats or emergency personnel, Bracewell said.

Experts said it is very difficult to get out of the loop of current near a dam.

The best hope for escape would be to dive toward the riverbed to try to get below the rotating water, Endreny said. Unfortunately, Bracewell said this is extremely difficult because people are naturally buoyant, meaning staying at the bottom long enough to get out of the swell would be nearly impossible.

Bracewell said even people who believe they are strong paddlers should be wary of the current around dams, especially during less than ideal conditions such as heavy rains.

"That water isn't going to quit," Bracewell said. "People get tired, water doesn't."