Arkansas River drowning in Tulsa

[RandyJ]

A kayaker drowned today in the Arkansas River in Tulsa. As far as we know, it wasn't anyone we know or someone with ties to the Dust Bowl chapter. The local media report with the most information is HERE.

The low-water dam mentioned is just upstream of the Tulsa Wave site. Apparently this is the boat he was using.


Condolences to the family, and props to the Tulsa Fire Dept. Sounds like they got there quick and did their thing well.

FYI - river was running about 45,000 cfs at the time of the accident.

FYI2 - part of the river development project planned here is to rework this dam to remove the drowning machine effect and create whitewater features below the dam.

[gnick4]

Our prayers for his family.

[Flapjack]

.....well maybe this will help them make up there minds to go ahead and build the park. At 45 thousand that sucker would be bad. My heart goes out to the family. Flapjack

[okieboater]

Late this afternoon one of the local stations called me for background information on the area.

At that time, the reporter did not know the man's name or exactly what happened.

From talking to the reporter, I got the impression the man attempted to run Zink Dam.

Maybe more info tomorrow.

I told the reporter that the danger of running Zink Dam at any level was well known to all the local boaters and my guess was the man was not familiar with the dangers of low head dams.

I have walked the pedestrian bridge just above the dam at these flows and it is scary for me to just look.

[waterhog]

is this dam riverwide or is there a safe path around it

[okieboater]

river wide and there is a warning set of red bouy's with a cable or at least was the last time I checked

[waterhog]

damn't that sucks

[GregK]

The authorities released the name of the victim. 31-year-old Derrek Richardson. This is a Tulsa World article from a few days ago.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article. ... oaea195245

Here's an excerpt from that article:

Tulsa County Engineer Ray Jordan said proposed improvements to the Zink Dam could have saved Richardson if he had been able to stay in his boat.

"With the new white-water feature that is being proposed as an improvement to Zink Dam, the man would most likely be alive if that feature was in place when he went over," Jordan said.

"The white-water effects would have created a surface for his boat to float on top of the water, reducing the risk of him being sucked under," Jordan said.