CORBETT, Ore. — The Multnomah County Sheriff's Office has identified a man who died after being found unresponsive in the Sandy River on Wednesday afternoon. The sheriff's office said that it's now a confirmed drowning.
Deputies responded around 2:40 p.m. to a report of an unresponsive person in the river near Oxbow Regional Park. While deputies fanned out across the river bank, firefighters from the Gresham Fire Department launched a river rescue boat to reach the person.
The Gresham firefighters found the person, later revealed to be 46-year-old Derek Alan Johnson of Portland, and were able to take him into shore where paramedics were waiting. However, Johnson was declared dead following a medical evaluation.
According to the sheriff's office, witnesses saw Johnson using a stand-up paddleboard on the Sandy River when he fell into the water and did not resurface. The county medical examiner's office later confirmed that Johnson drowned.
Johnson was not wearing a lifejacket when he fell into the water, the sheriff's office said.
On Thursday, the day that Johnson was identified, many of the same agencies again responded to Oxbow Park for another water rescue, one with a more fortunate ending.
The Gresham Fire Department said that two families were there with several kids. A 12-year-old boy got swept away in the rapids and was in distress, and two family members who went after him were also swept away.
All three people were able to climb onto a sand bar, though they were not all together. Rescuers reached the sand bar in boats and ferried the three back to shore. The two adults were taken to the hospital for evaluation as a precaution, but Gresham Fire said that everyone was conscious and had normal vital signs.
Wednesday's events mirror a story from earlier this month, when 53-year-old Christopher Smaka did not return from a hike around the Sandy River. Some of his belongings were found around Oxbow Park, and his body was later discovered in the river not far from where he'd gone in.
"A lot of times, in the hot weather this time of year, people underestimate the Sandy River significantly," said MCSO's head search-and-rescue coordinator Sgt. Brian Gerkman during the search for Smaka. "It is still very cold, it's glacier melt — people will see that it looks low and clear, and that river still moves pretty rapidly and it's very cold."
There have been several other drownings on local waterways within recent weeks as temperatures warm up. The Northwest is in the middle of an Excessive Heat Warning that will go through Saturday.
