A member of the Etowah County Rescue Squad died Saturday night, hours after the boat she was in capsized during a mission on Big Wills Creek near the old steel plant pump station off Brooke Avenue. Big Wills Creek is swollen due to the recent rains as The Gadsden Fire Department and Etowah County Rescue Squad search for a kayaker who went missing about 11 a.m. Saturday.

Vicky Houston Ryan, 46, was pronounced dead at 10:25 p.m. Saturday, Etowah Coroner Michael Head said.  Rescue squad members were called in to drag the creek after a kayaker was swept out of a boat near the dam. The kayaker was presumed to have drowned, according to Gadsden Assistant Fire Chief Robert Maltbie.

Maltbie said two kayakers were in the water near low dam about 11:07 a.m. when one was swept out of the kayak. The other called for help.

He said the person was presumed drowned and responders continued their search.   The Etowah County Rescue Squad was conducting dragging operations late Saturday afternoon when one of its flat-bottom boats got too close to the dam and the turbulent water swamped it, throwing the squad members into the water.  A second squad boat moved in to try to get the members and it, too, capsized.

“We had nine people in the water,” Maltbie said. Four went to local hospitals, he said, and where Ryan later died. All squad members were pulled from the water, he said, but the kayaker remains missing.

Fire department personnel were on the scene overnight, he said, but water operations halted as nightfall approached.  “We’re not going to be putting anyone in the water tonight. The water is extremely high and the current is very strong,” Maltbie said. “These low head dams like this one create so much turbulence in the water.” Getting near them is very dangerous.The Gadsden Fire Department retrieved the body of a 25-year-old kayaker from the waters of Big Wills Creek off Brooke Avenue Sunday morning. 

Assistant Fire Chief Jim Matlock said firefighters were on the scene overnight and crews began walking the banks Sunday morning trying to spot the body of Dakota Brett Crandall.  Crandall was lost in the waters Saturday morning when he was swept out of his kayak near the dam at the old steel plant pump station.

Etowah County Coroner Michael Head responded to the scene and Crandall’s body was taken to a funeral home. Head said he recently had moved to Gadsden from Utah.  Matlock said Crandall’s body was found about 300 yards from where he went into the water just after 11 a.m. Saturday.  He said firefighters used ropes tied off at the bank to retrieve Crandall’s body without putting a boat into the waters, still swollen from recent heavy rains. He said the creek still was very dangerous, as it had been Saturday.  The water of the creek is 10 to 15 feet deep in places, Matlock said, but was about 5 feet deep where the body was found.  It took department members about 45 minutes to mount the retrieval, and about 15 to remove Crandall’s body.

As waterways are still swollen from the current rainfall, everyone should use extreme caution when on the waterways.  Always wear life jackets, helmets and other gear that is appropriate.