Another rescue of folks stuck in a dam tailrace:
Communication, rapid response and teamwork by helped TVA’s Hydro Operations and Transmission Field Office teams rescue two boaters at Guntersville Dam recently.
Around 4 p.m. on July 15, Jeremy Woosley, a member of TVA’s Transmission Field Operations team in north Alabama, heard on the local police scanner that a boat was in trouble below Guntersville Dam. Woosley immediately called the control room at TVA’s Guntersville Hydro Plant and a TVA team was sent to investigate.
What they discovered was a harrowing scene. Passengers on the boat were in deadly trouble. Their boat had capsized and was trapped underneath the tailrace below the dam. Due to the location of the boaters and the surging wake of the plant’s Unit 4 discharge, they were not visible to any of the plant employees.
The plant immediately shut down generating units 3 & 4 and used LifeRings to pull the two boaters to safety. A tow boat was then secured to help retrieve the sunken vessel.
“We got the call from Transmission just in the nick of time,” said David “Chip” Troy, Guntersville Hydro Plant manager. “When we found them, the boat was overturned. One of them was clinging to a lock wing wall between the tailrace and spillway. The other was trying to swing to the wing wall, but he was struggling and about to go under. We threw him a LifeRing, shut down both units, and stabilized the situation until help arrived.”
Local ambulance and rescue crews arrived at the scene and treated both men, who were uninjured from the incident.
Communication, rapid response and teamwork by helped TVA’s Hydro Operations and Transmission Field Office teams rescue two boaters at Guntersville Dam recently.
Around 4 p.m. on July 15, Jeremy Woosley, a member of TVA’s Transmission Field Operations team in north Alabama, heard on the local police scanner that a boat was in trouble below Guntersville Dam. Woosley immediately called the control room at TVA’s Guntersville Hydro Plant and a TVA team was sent to investigate.
What they discovered was a harrowing scene. Passengers on the boat were in deadly trouble. Their boat had capsized and was trapped underneath the tailrace below the dam. Due to the location of the boaters and the surging wake of the plant’s Unit 4 discharge, they were not visible to any of the plant employees.
The plant immediately shut down generating units 3 & 4 and used LifeRings to pull the two boaters to safety. A tow boat was then secured to help retrieve the sunken vessel.
“We got the call from Transmission just in the nick of time,” said David “Chip” Troy, Guntersville Hydro Plant manager. “When we found them, the boat was overturned. One of them was clinging to a lock wing wall between the tailrace and spillway. The other was trying to swing to the wing wall, but he was struggling and about to go under. We threw him a LifeRing, shut down both units, and stabilized the situation until help arrived.”
Local ambulance and rescue crews arrived at the scene and treated both men, who were uninjured from the incident.
