People and Dogs Fight For Life after River Rises 5 Feet

A Sunday afternoon fishing on the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg, Virginia with your dog might sound like a fun way to spend your afternoon. You check the alerts to make sure there is no bad weather coming and you go out for the day. But for those on the river it became a fight against nature when flash flooding trapped 13 people and 2 dogs on islands and rocky outcroppings in the middle of an increasingly raging, rising river because the alert system failed. Witnesses say it all began around 2:30 p.m. when the Rappahannock suddenly rose an estimated five to six feet in less than an hour. The rising water trapped the people and their dogs on the river. “I was fishing, and it was crystal clear. Then the water started changing color, and within a minute it was a wave,” according to a witness account given to the Fredericksburg Patch. “There was no where I could go. I was stuck.” Alerts about the Flash flooding coming later in the day were not sent out until sometime between 2:30 and 2:45 (accounts differ) when people and their pets were battling for their lives.

A Vizsla named Jackie, had been swept down river but had made it to a rocky outcropping between Laucks Island and the Fredericksburg shore. At times, the dog paced back and forth, leaning out over the raging river as if he’d jump in. People nearby saw the dog pacing clearly upset trying to get back to her owner and tried to distract her from jumping in the water.

At 3:15 Fredericksburg rescue personnel attempted to rescue the person stranded in the most precarious position with water still rising. The first rescue attempt failed as personnel could not battle the waves. A second attempt using different methods was eventually more successful. There were still 10 more people trapped amidst raging waters on rocky outcroppings between Laucks island and the old spillway. One by one, rescuers made precarious trips from rocks to shore rescuing those stranded in raging water in what was supposed to be a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Once the people were safely ashore, the rescuers turned their attention to the two dogs who had been out for an afternoon adventure with their owners, Jackie the Visla and a Bull Dog named Steel. They were both rescued and reunited with their owners. Stafford County rescuers saved 5 people and two more dogs from other islands along the river.