A group of tourists riding all-terrain vehicles in a remote, mountainous part of Hawaii’s Big Island had to climb trees to keep from being swept over a 22.5m waterfall during a flash flood.
They were on a tour with Ride the Rim, a company that runs tours around the Waipio Valley, and the 14 guests and three guides set out at about 1pm on Monday, owner Eileen Levin said.
When the group stopped to swim in a waterfall that was part of the tour, three visitors dipped into the pool that sits between two waterfalls, including the 22.5m drop downstream of the swimming hole.
That was when the waterfall feeding the pool started gushing, visitor Jill Bolstridge, 33, of New York said.
“We pulled ourselves out right in the nick of time, because four or five feet [1.2m to 1.5m] to the left, we would have had nothing to grab onto, and the water was so strong that we would have been taken over the edge,” Bolstridge said.
The swimmers scrambled to safety on a platform near the water’s edge, but a breakaway bridge they needed to get back to the rest of the tour group and the trail had been washed away to the side. The current was too strong to safely cross, so the swimmers and a handful of other tourists who had walked across the bridge were stranded.
“There was no way anyone could get into the water after this happened, because there was no margin of error,” Levin said.
Tour guides called for help, but the weather conditions initially prevented a helicopter from getting to the site, Levin said.
The stranded group was waiting on a wooden platform overlooking the waterfalls, but as the water level continued to rise, they feared the platform could be swept away and over the falls, so they climbed nearby trees and waited for help.
Eventually, a rescue helicopter from the Hawaii County Fire Department lifted the tourists and guides to safety.
No one was injured, the Fire Department said.
Levin said her company did not receive a warning about flash flooding until more than an hour after the incident occurred. The tourists were offered refunds and a second free trip with the company, she said.
All of the Hawaiian Islands were under a flash-flood watch through Tuesday night, the US National Weather Service said.
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
THIRD IN A ROW? An expert said if the report of a probe into the defense official is true, people would naturally ask if it would erode morale in the military Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) has been placed under investigation for corruption, a report said yesterday, the latest official implicated in a crackdown on graft in the country’s military. Citing current and former US officials familiar with the situation, British newspaper the Financial Times said that the investigation into Dong was part of a broader probe into military corruption. Neither the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Chinese embassy in Washington replied to a request for confirmation yesterday. If confirmed, Dong would be the third Chinese defense minister in a row to fall under investigation for corruption. A former navy
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS