-
Submitted Photo Early Monday morning, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said three-year-old Nevaeh Jade Newswanger was visiting with her family when she fell into the water and was carried over the falls.
A child died after being swept away at Whitewater Falls in southern Jackson County on Sunday night.
Early Monday morning, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office said three-year-old Nevaeh Jade Newswanger was visiting with her family when she fell into the water and was carried over the falls.
Emergency crews from Jackson, Transylvania, Haywood, Henderson, and Oconee (SC) counties responded to the call that went out just before 6 p.m. on Sunday evening.
“The rescue [squads] in Western North Carolina are sort of like a family, if you want to call it that,” Glenville-Cashiers Rescue Squad chief Jeff Stewart said. “The guys from Henderson and Haywood offered a specialty that we needed [Sunday night]. They’ve got folks that can get into the swift water, and they’ve got the gear to do it with.”
The child was found pinned by a rapid about 100 feet down the waterfall, and her body was recovered around 1 a.m. on Monday morning.
The Sheriff’s Office said Newswanger was from Denver, Pennsylvania, a small town about an hour and 15 minutes west of Philadelphia. Her family was living in Oconee County while working in the area.
“Just prior to nightfall on Sunday, rescuers located the child deceased and entrapped in an area of the waterfall,” a statement from the Sheriff’s Office said. “Recovery operations throughout the night and early morning led to the child being recovered from the waterfall around 1 a.m. on Monday, April 11.”
Jackson County Sheriff Chip Hall offered his condolences to the family following the accident.
“First and foremost, our prayers are with the Newswanger family as they grieve the loss of this precious young child,” Hall wrote in a statement. “With the onset of spring weather, we need to be reminded of the dangers associated with many scenic areas of the region such as waterfalls. While beautiful to view from a safe distance, venturing out closer to the falls for any reason brings tremendous danger. Always remain at a distance, follow safety precautions and warnings which are in place, and view waterfalls from designated viewing areas.”
After the call was dispatched to the Glenville-Cashiers Rescue Squad at approximately 5:55 p.m., the rescue squad was on scene at Whitewater Falls at 6:40 p.m. and set up an incident command center. GCRS public affairs officer Nat Turner said he and the squad were hoping for a rescue but feared a recovery.
The first recon group went out at 7 p.m., Turner said, which included five members that needed to reach the top of the falls and traverse the river to the west side. Fifteen minutes later, the first member of the team rappelled down the west side of the falls looking for the victim.
Turner said at 7:40 p.m., Newswanger’s body was located about 100 feet down from the top of the falls. He said the body could not be recovered with the gear and personnel the rescue squad had on them.
A drone was then dispatched, which came from the Connestee Fire Department, to obtain the exact coordinates and photographs of the situation. The teams were moved back, and the situation was assessed by the command unit to plan their next move.
“Every one of these people makes up for a handful of paid people,” Turner said. “I think 90 percent of these people are off the clock, they’re volunteers, with a high level of training, high level of commitment, using their own resources. I just hope, I know the community is appreciative and knows the level of training and commitment we have.”
He said, ironically, the rescue squad went through this exact type of training with anchor bolts the weekend before this accident occurred.
“Every Thursday night, we have training, and it can be from childbirth to vehicle extrication,” Turner said. “And it never ceases to amaze me that, whatever we seem to train, I mean, it gets put to use. I mean, just really quick thereafter. It’s probably due to the level of calls, 1,000 calls per year.”
At approximately 10:30 p.m., everyone on the scene had to pause and debate whether to continue Sunday night or turn their operations into a daytime effort. Turner said it is safer to work during the day, but because all the resources were there then, the group opted to continue into the late hours of the night.
At 1 a.m., the body was recovered and sent back up the waterfall on lines that had been set up by team members earlier in the evening.
Turner said anchor bolts were used to secure people to the rock face to get the hoisting to get the victim out.
Stewart noted that with the water hitting directly behind the rescue team members, it’s like a hurricane splashing continually with 35-40 mph winds hitting them all the time. One wrong move can hurt or, worse, kill someone.
“It’s just a hostile place,” Stewart said. “But with the training that we’ve done and all these folks that came last night and did this training that they volunteered to do, there are probably some folks that are on their jobs this morning. We’ve got a trauma P.A. [physician assistant] out of Mission that was there last night, he’s probably seeing patients this morning. You’ve got men that have their own businesses. If they didn’t get started on the clock this morning, the doors didn’t open. And us, we’re rolling in at five o’clock this morning. And then having to deal with the emotional side of, you know, here’s a three-year-old girl.”
- By Michael O'Hearn/Crossroads Chronicle