Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Alison Webb
Late Friday morning, the ambulance moved slowly through Palouse.
It went past McLeod’s Market, the community center and by the city council chambers.
It had been on site above the Palouse River along North River Road after a call for a missing kayaker the day before. The search and rescue operation went overnight Thursday and into Friday morning.
But the ambulance returned down Main Street like any other vehicle, its sirens quiet, its speed without emphasis.
The body of Alison Webb had been found about 8:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 22. Next to her was her dog, waiting alongside.
According to Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers, she was found on a grassy spot above water
He indicated that the calm water and low depths this time of year may have made the river more dangerous.
“The water’s so low, a watercraft could run aground where there is still current,” he said, indicating that hitting a rock could turn a kayak sideways and capsize it.
Webb’s 12-foot orange kayak was found 30 to 40 yards from her body. From all indications, Myers said the incident that sent her into the water happened “very near” where she was found. The small dog was riding in or on the kayak with her.
“She had made it mostly on shore herself,” Myers said. “She probably stumbled to that location. Once the kayak capsized with that cold of air and water, she almost immediately would be rendered with problems with dexterity. Hypothermic conditions would come on almost immediately. She really only had a couple minutes.”
Even her ability to yell for help would have been affected, Myers said.
On a night which the temperature reached as low as seven degrees, searchers walked the Palouse River’s shore of varying terrain. In addition, a helicopter crew flew back and forth with a spotlight, but what they all were looking for was hard to find.
“Even during the day,” Myers said, noting that it took time for the chopper to spot the kayak and body from the air the next morning.
“From that height, the grass is tall, the dog was hard to see and the kayak was up under brush,” Myers said.
The ground search on a four-mile stretch of the river began Thursday night with a Whitman County crew starting in Palouse going upriver from town, combing the riverbank on each side. Meanwhile, a Latah County crew began at Webb’s put-in site near Wellesley Road across the Idaho border. They met in the middle at 4 a.m.
The varying steep and wooded shoreline made it impossible for the groups to completely search the river banks at night.
“The tragedy is that we couldn’t get there sooner,” Myers said. “We did everything we could and our hearts go out to the family.”
A Medstar helicopter searched the area with a spotlight starting about 10 p.m. Thursday night. On Friday morning, a chopper from Fairchild Air Force Base arrived at about 7 a.m. They located Webb about an hour and a half later.
Pete Martin, Whitman County Coroner, determined the cause of death as hypothermia, with an approximate time of death of 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
“Your body temperature drops like that and you become dysfunctional, muscle-wise, brain-wise,” he said. “You’re too confused, too stiff and too weak to move.”
He estimates she was alive for 30 minutes after going into the water, with unconsciousness setting in within five to 10 minutes.
“None of us appreciates how cold that is,” he said, indicating the water temperature was in the 30s.
Overall, Palouse Fire Chief Mike Bagott noted how unusual the incident was.
“It’s pretty rare that this happens,” said Bagott, a 19-year veteran of the Palouse department. “We’ve been very fortunate. This is the first (river fatality ) in my time.”
Webb had set out Thursday on an afternoon kayak trip. When she failed to return at the expected time, family members became concerned and conducted a brief search before they called 911 at about 8 p.m.
All told, crews from the Latah County Sheriff’s Office, Latah County Search and Rescue, Whitman County Emergency Management, MedStar, Fairchild Air Force Base, Whitman County Sheriff’s Office, Palouse Fire and EMS, Border Patrol, Whitman County Coroner and the American Red Cross assisted in the search.
“I would encourage people to be as prepared as possible, to be aware of how quickly something like that can go bad,” Bagott said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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