The East Fork of the Illinois River flows past Illinois River Forks State Park, where a 39-year-old local man drowned last Saturday, prompting warnings that swimmers beware of cold river water temperatures.

With the weather heating up this week, people might be tempted to head to rivers and lakes to cool off, but already this season there’s been one reported drowning in the Illinois River near Cave Junction and a near-drowning in the Rogue River near Gold Beach.

Temperatures are predicted to reach about 90 degrees or hotter for the rest of the week, and authorities are warning the public about cold river temperatures that can swiftly cause hypothermia. The temperature of the Rogue River near Gold Hill on Tuesday was a numbing 59.5 degrees.

“Please remember, despite outside temperatures, it is still early in the year,” Cpl. Aaron Porter of the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release announcing the drowning death of 39-year-old Zeke Grant of Cave Junction. “The rivers can remain cold, swift and dangerous.”

Witnesses reported seeing Grant swimming shortly before noon on Saturday at a popular swimming hole at Illinois River Forks State Park near Cave Junction, but then found him submerged about 15 minutes later, according to Porter. Medics, fire/rescue personnel and law enforcement personnel went to the scene.

Pull Quote

“This is a big, dangerous river. You have to respect it or it will swallow you up.”

— Lt. Sam Waller III of the Gold Beach Fire Department, speaking about the Rogue River

In Gold Beach on May 22, three eighth-grade students, two of their teachers and three would-be rescuers were pulled from the Rogue River near Huntley Park, about 8 river miles upstream from the mouth of the Rogue River, when the school group went there for a swim, but got caught in the current. An officer who went in after them nearly drowned.

“This is a big, dangerous river,” Lt. Sam Waller III of the Gold Beach Fire Department said Monday in a telephone interview. “You have to respect it or it will swallow you up.”

Waller was among the emergency crews responding to a mid-afternoon call that day about two or three juveniles in the water and possibly drowning.

“The number went from two to three to five to seven,” Waller said. “I’m going, ‘Oh God.'”

On the way to the scene, Waller called his father, Sam Waller Jr., who he knew was fishing in a boat a mile or two downriver of the park. The elder Waller then motored upstream to help with the rescue, as did personnel in a Curry County Sheriff’s Office boat.

The students and their teachers were on an end-of-school-year outing from Surprise Valley High School in Cedarville, California, and were spending three days and two nights in Gold Beach, according to Audra Evans, principal of the school and superintendent of the school district. They were told by locals that the swimming was good at the park.

“Day Two turned a little rough, for sure,” Evans said.

Three of the students had waded into deep water after being given “very specific instructions not to go out further than waist deep,” she said. “The girls had waded out there …. They started calling for help.”

The teachers, on shore, immediately took off their sweatshirts, got rid of their cell phones and went in, according to Evans. Other members of the school group called 911 or ran for help.

The teachers instructed the girls to put their heads back and float, but one of the girls became scared and struggled to stay afloat even with assistance from the teachers. She eventually made it to rocks in the river and was told to hang on, but when one of the other girls was swept downstream, one of the teachers swam after her.

“The teacher kept talking to that third student,” Evans said. “She kept calling to her and trying to talk to her.”

That teacher and student were eventually pulled into a sheriff’s office boat, after about 50 minutes in the water.

“They were just floating on their back,” Lt. Waller said. “They were just staying calm and collected.”

No one in the school group wore a life jacket.

Back at the park, with members of the school group yelling that they couldn’t hang on to rocks any longer, Curry County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Bryce Starbird and Gold Beach police officers Sarah Aryanfard and Robert Helme decided to enter the river, according to a sheriff’s office report. The deputy and Helme were swept downriver and Helme, not wearing a lifejacket, later struggled and went underwater several times before he was plucked out by Lt. David Denney in the sheriff’s boat.

“(He) was pulled from under the water by Lt. Denney and pulled onto the swim platform,” according to the sheriff’s office statement.

Others were rescued by the elder Waller and a companion, Christopher Williams. Everyone in the school group was treated for hypothermia. Helme was hospitalized and is expected to return to duty next week, according to Lt. Waller.

“It was a good rescue with a good turnout where everybody survived,” he said.

The day after the rescue, Evans and the spouses of the teachers met up with the students and teachers in Crescent City and got them back home.

“I think it was a big sigh of relief knowing there were more adults there to help,” Evans said.

The next day at school, they spoke with a counselor about the effects of adrenaline, which can leave the body sore and cause headaches. The body responds to danger by releasing adrenaline for energy.

“It was very beneficial, so they knew what to expect,” Evans said.

Meanwhile, the Josephine County Sheriff’s Office has posted an advisory to its social media page about early-season river conditions.

“The rivers are still very, very cold,” it reads. “Shock and hypothermia can happen quickly.”