Yet Another Senseless Tragedy
A man was swept over 410 ft. high Feather Falls this past weekend. He slipped on the slick rocks above the falls and bye-bye. It is sad of course, but sometimes I just don’t understand why people do things like this. Why was he even close to the raging water?
Here are a couple links to the story:
http://www.redding.com/news/2012/apr/23/search-and-rescue-unable-find-body-chico-man-swept
http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/51f98261ce7a41de80d11be14366efa3/CA–Waterfall-Death/
It is interesting to note though that some of the news articles I read about this incident used the very often cited and very incorrect height of 640 ft. for Feather Falls, but other news sites used the correct figure of 410 ft., which was my measurement. Feather Falls has often been touted as the 6th highest waterfall in the U.S., and at a height of 640 ft. I do not know where this number came from but it is certainly very wrong. It was myself who first determined that the correct height of the waterfall was 410 ft. This height has been confirmed now by one other group as well. So it is nice to know that some news sites did the proper research and were using my measurement (and the correct one) for this tragic news story. This is one reason why measuring waterfall heights is important.
By the way, the photo here is obviously not Feather Falls. It is Federal Falls, which is a very precise and very small 11 ft. high.
May 1st, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Really tragic news about the Feather Falls accident. I often see a lot of crazy people doing crazy things near waterfalls or near the edge of cliffs that make me cringe. Sometimes I have to look away, and especially hope that I don’t have to get involved in trying to help someone.
May 2nd, 2012 at 6:20 pm
Yes, I know what you mean Michael. Just last weekend I saw people standing in the water at the top of Rainbow Pool Falls, and I kept wondering how long it would be until they slipped and fell in the river.