Sad Story - Fisherman Lost

[metalhead madness]

being from that area i do know that the north has alot of 3+s and 4 class rapids. though i do not know the gentelman. my wishes go out to his family. i myself have had mishapes and things happen very quickly. ot is unfortunate that he was not wearing a pfd or he might have been saved. also in this article talks about two others that drowned in the south. i did know this family. there were three in the boat. not one wearing a pfd. the section they overturned in is called weaver rapids. although not to tecknical anything can happen. please be safe and wear pfds. it just might be the difference between life or death.

[Artwo]

The following article is from the Roseburg newspaper. I have worked with this individual in the past but did not know him personaly, still very sad.

Missing boater presumed dead
North Umpqua: Man vacationing in the area doesn’t return from Saturday fishing trip

By JOHN SOWELL
The News-Review
February 25, 2002

A 52-year-old Vernonia man with little boating experience was missing and presumed drowned following a mishap Saturday on the North Umpqua River.
Bob Percifield had gone fishing after launching his drift boat into the river at about 9:30 a.m. at Hestnes Landing, off Del Rio Road west of Winchester, Lt. Norm Nelson of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said.
After the Portland area resident failed to return to his vacation home on Apple Blossom Lane, his wife, Susan, reported him missing. Her first call to the sheriff’s office came at 5:49 p.m.
Search and rescue crews and members of the swift-water rescue team from Douglas County Fire District No. 2 were unable to locate Percifield on Saturday or Sunday. A Coast Guard airplane flew over the river, but could not find any signs of Percifield either.
The rescue teams searched both the water and the banks. They were only able to locate a cooler found floating in the water believed to have come from Percifield’s boat. Percifield was reportedly not wearing a life jacket, authorities said.
Low visibility because of fog prevented crews from resuming the search this morning, Nelson said.
“Our plan is to keep running the river when we can,” Nelson said.
Susan Percifield told authorities the fishing trip Saturday marked only the fourth time her husband had been out in the boat.
A man who regularly goes out on that section of the river saw Percifield a day earlier anchored near some rapids. That man told deputies he would have never gone that close to the rapids because of the danger.
The lack of a life jacket and the fact Percifield was out boating alone did not bode well for him, Nelson said.
“There’s too many things that can happen,” he said.
Two men, a father and a son, drowned Feb. 2 following a boating accident on the South Umpqua River near Riddle. Also on Saturday, a man was rescued after falling out of his raft on the South Umpqua near Days Creek.

[ 02-27-2002, 12:29 PM: Message edited by: Artwo ]