Local pro kayaker details heroic effort to rescue missing kayaker found alive at Kanawha Falls
https://woay.com/local-pro-kayaker-details-heroic-effort-to-rescue-missing-kayaker-found-alive-at-kanawha-falls/?amp
(video at link)
Local pro kayaker details heroic effort to rescue missing kayaker found alive at Kanawha Falls
By Anna Saunders- September 22, 2020 10:06 pm
FAYETTE COUNTY, WV (WOAY) It is a story of both the power of social media and also the power of the countys strong, local whitewater community as kayakers came to the rescue on Sunday night to save the life of a kayaker from Tennessee.
Corey Lilly lives in Fayetteville and is a professional kayaker for Pyranha Kayaks and Immersion Research. For him, it was a combination of a gut feeling and years of experience when he saw the photo posted on a Facebook page of a floating empty kayak in the Kanawha Falls area.
The Fayette County Sheriffs Department, DNR officers and swift water rescue teams made up of local firefighters initially responded to the 911 call at around 6 p.m. once the empty kayak and empty Tennessee vehicle were spotted at the Kanawha Falls public access space.
Once the search and rescue teams called it a night at around 10 p.m., Lilly went with his gut and called on other kayakers, Stephen Wright and Paul Griffin, to check a specific pocket in the falls.