It took more than 12 hours. But early Saturday morning, crews rescued two kayakers from the Little River Canyon near Fort Payne.

DeKalb County Emergency Management Director Anthony Clifton said two men (ages 29 & 30) from Birmingham were kayaking on Friday when they got stranded. He said one of the men was on a rock and the other was on the bank.

Multiple agencies including local fire departments, rescue squads, DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, and DeKalb County EMA assisted in the effort which started at around 4:00pm on Christmas day. Eventually, they rescued the two men using ropes at around 4:30 Saturday morning.  One was transported to a hospital for evaluation. The other is fine.

As of Saturday morning, the Alabama River flow page listed the Little River Canyon as running at 11,700 cubic feet per second, with the majority of the sections of the river being classified as high.