2nd local teenager drowns in recent weeks.

[Darrell KSR]

17-year old drowned yesterday in the Cahaba River tubing. A couple of weeks ago an 18-year old drowned doing the same in the Warrior River.

The older sister of my PG in the golf picture I posted dates a high school friend of the deceased young man. What a sad story.

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[Darrell KSR]

Here's the story:

http://www.abc3340.com/story/2308909...e-cahaba-river

[MickintheHam]

Darrell, it is very, very sad. As you know my back property line runs the middle of the Cahaba River. Last week as I was finishing my run in the neighbor hood, I heard sirens. It happened that five teenage boys got stranded on debris in the middle of the river about a quarter mile downstream from my house. The police and fire rescue teams spent about 2 hours fishing the kids out of the river. The call came in to 911 from a guy who lives in our neighborhood. We are on the high side of the river. The flood plain is on the other bank. The rescue vehicles had to drive 7 miles to get to the other side. One of the boys was in a lot of trouble and the neighbors were all seriously worried his buddies couldn't hang on to him. Fortunately they did. Water levels are at record highs for this time of year. There are a lot of dead limbs in the river. It's more dangerous than it appears.

[Darrell KSR]

I also remember that woman driving her car into the Cahaba not too far from you and how horrible that must've been to think of drowned children possibly down your way.

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[MickintheHam]

That was a sad day Darrell. Very sad.

I love the Cahaba. It's a free flowing river, a source of great recreation. But, as we all know you have to take the proper precautions. Life jackets are a must, no matter how deep the water.

The river flows in back of the high school and my son's junior science teacher would have the students wading in the river one day a week to collect water samples and study the organisms in the river. Those experiences did a lot to stimulate my son's interest in science and in the ecology of the river.