Style Weekly on the James River: ‘It wants to kill you’
According to Style Weekly, “while the city renews its love affair with the James, there’s something you should know: It wants to kill you.” And the James River Deaths page was credited in the article. Style Weekly’s Melissa Scott Sinclair wrote a very thorough and encompassing report on the dangers of the James River, including the […]
According to Style Weekly, “while the city renews its love affair with the James, there’s something you should know: It wants to kill you.” And the James River Deaths page was credited in the article.
Style Weekly’s Melissa Scott Sinclair wrote a very thorough and encompassing report on the dangers of the James River, including the recent “Tree Guy” incident where a man became trapped at Belle Isle after he rode a tree down the river:
After decades of neglect, the James is considered the best thing about Richmond. Visionaries believe it’s the key to the city’s revival. Kayakers revel in its wild rapids. For many, the James is their playground, the city’s backyard pool. Plunking down on a sun-baked rock with a six-pack is a classic Richmond pastime.
But the more we celebrate the river, the more people forget how dangerous it can be. The James drops 100 feet between the Williams Dam and the Mayo Bridge, churning through rocks and creating white-water rapids.
“This is not Water World,” James River System Park Manager Ralph White says. “This is not a Kings Dominion ride. This is the real thing. You can die.”
The good news is that experienced river users are leaping in to help people in trouble. It happens with spectacular saves, like Tree Guy. And it happens every day, with rescues no one ever hears about.
The bad news is that people still die. In the last four years, at least 14 people have drowned in the James River. Some jumped. Some fell. Some were swept away.
And the James River Deaths page:
Last year Phil Riggan, editor of the James River News Hub blog, created a Google map showing Richmond-area deaths on the river since July 2007. He says he was inspired to make it after the death of a friend’s father. Jerry A. Nutter, a knowledgeable kayaker, died in 2007 when his boat overturned.
Riggan says he wanted to remind himself, and others, that anything can happen on the river. No matter how careful you are, no matter how much you prepare, he says, “you can still have something unexpected happen and you can die.”
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