Chetco River Drowning, Feb. 25

One fisherman drowned and six others were lucky Saturday, Feb. 22, on the Chetco River east of Brookings. Brookings resident 67-year old Paul Graham drowned when his flat bottom drift boat capsized in the area of Tamba Hole, a mile downriver from Loeb State Park. Rescuers responding to the area with ropes couldn’t spot Graham, but did end up rescuing three other fishermen who got in the trouble with the same tree branch-choked passage and were quickly thrown into the rushing water. They were all wearing life jackets and rescued without injuries. Later that day, another drift boat got caught in the same overhanging tree branches and flipped. The three fishermen in that boat were also rescued.