A man and his 5-year-old son spent almost two hours hanging on to their overturned boat near the mouth of the Columbia River in early November before they were rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter, the federal agency said.
The U.S. Coast Guard station in Astoria posted social media video of the treacherous situation Saturday. In the video, a man appears to balance on the hull of an overturned boat clutching a bundle in his arms as waves rock the small craft.
The Coast Guard crew, including a rescue swimmer, successfully hoisted the father and son into a helicopter and transported them to an ambulance to treat them for hypothermia, audio from the incident says.
The boy and his father were among three people rescued by crews on Nov. 5, according to the guard. Crews also rescued one person from a sailboat knocked around in 10 foot seas.
News of the rescue comes as a town further down the coast is battling the federal government to keep its own rescue helicopter.
Lincoln County filed a lawsuit Friday against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to force the federal government to return a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter to Newport.
“This helicopter isn’t a luxury—it’s a critical part of how we keep people alive on the Oregon Coast," Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said in a statement.
Oregon coastal water temperatures average 50- to 54-degrees Fahrenheit year-round, can cause drowning within one to three minutes of immersion, the suit said. The relocation of the helicopter further south to North Bend will reduce critical rescue times from 15 to 30 minutes to 60 to 90 minutes, the suit argues.
- Reporter Maxine Bernstein contributed to this story.
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