Saturday evening prompted a search and rescue effort at approximately 9:10 pm when 2 kayakers overturned their kayakes in the Yellowstone River. According to a press release from Yellowstone County Sheriff Mike Linder.
A call was made to dispatch advising that 2 adult female kayakers approximately 30 years old, who had put in at Laurel had capsized near the Duck Creek Bridge. Emergency responders arrived and determined it was too dark to safely launch the Sheriff’s Office rescue boat. Rescuers discovered later that one of the women had made it to shore and the other one was stranded on a log jam in the middle of the river. For a while she was able to communicate with rescuers via cell phone.
After losing phone communications, Help flight was requested in order to get a view of the stranded kayaker’s status. It was determined that Help Flight would not be able to safely affect a rescue at that time.
Rescuers decided it would be safer to wait until daylight to continue rescue efforts.
A Help Flight Pilot with ties to the National Guard was aware of National Guard helicopter training going on in our area. Contact was made and a National Guard helicopter equipped for nighttime operations responded to the scene, was able to land close by and rescue the woman from the log jam at approximately 2:30 this morning.
Both women received medical attention although I do not have any information what the extent was.
Agencies that were involved in the rescue efforts included the Sheriff’s Office, Billings Fire, Help Flight and the Montana National Guard.
