Emergency crews were called to Mission Creek near Truswell Road late Saturday afternoon after two people nearly drowned in high-running water.
Bystanders said a young man and woman were swept away in the current and started struggling.
“It looks like there was a drop off, kind of, and then she slipped and just got instantly pulled out. Then he thought she would be able to swim back in, and it didn’t look like that, so he went to get her and then they both got stuck,” Tanner Brown, a bystander, said.
The people screamed and yelled for help, Brown said, so he called 911.
“It was a frantic moment.”
A kayaker and a paddleboarder on Okanagan Lake heard the yelling and helped pull the people to shore, Brown said.
“The water moves really fast and even trying to cross it to get to the sandbar in the shortest part, it just drops down really deep, and you can get pushed away,” bystander Ashlyn Eisenkrein said.
Both people appeared to be shaken up but unharmed, Brown said.
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“They looked pretty rattled. They got out really quick. They gave each other a hug and then left,” he said.
Police tape was strung across a path near the area.
Fire rescue crews are warning people to be careful around creeks.
“The rivers are swollen right now just due to the high runoff and spring conditions, and we’d like to remind everybody to stay well away from the banks,” Platoon Capt. Scott Clarke said.
People should also avoid walking on the water side of sandbags or tiger dams, he said.
“Every year we have people that try to kayak down the creeks, and while it might look like a good idea, we have a lot of debris that’s coming down the creeks that you just can’t control.”
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