Westchester psychiatrist dies in rafting capsize during Hurricane Irene; NYPD rescues

[rockhopper]

These guys all had experience and yet one of them died anyway. Be careful out there, guys!

Westchester psychiatrist dies in rafting capsize during Hurricane Irene; NYPD rescues other rafters

BY Barry Paddock
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Originally Published:Monday, August 29th 2011, 1:53 PM
Updated: Monday, August 29th 2011, 5:24 PM



Robert Sabo/News
First responders search the Croton River for five rafters as Tropical Storm Irene slammed the area Sunday.

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A Westchester County man died and two of his companions had to be rescued after a rafting trip on a hurricane-roiled river in Westchester County went horribly wrong Sunday.
Peter Engel, 53 of Cross River, drowned after the group's raft capsized in the Croton River about 5:40 p.m., authorities said Monday.
Engel, a psychiatrist and the father of two adult children, had more than 35 years experience in whitewater rafting around the world, a devastated friend said.
"Somehow we just hit the wrong spot at the wrong angle at the wrong time," said one of the surviving rafters, Michael Wolfert, who managed to swim ashore.
One of their fellow rafters, Brian Dooley, 33, of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., was adrift for three hours but eventually rescued from the rapids by emergency responders with help from an NYPD helicopter.
The group of five had sought adventure on the river's storm-swelled currents.
"You could call them extremists who wanted to experience extreme rapids," said Lt. Commander Russel Harper of the Croton Police Department.
"The river was excessively dangerous and extremely rapid as a result of the earlier rainfall from Hurricane Irene."
After the raft flipped over in the turbulent currents, two men, Wolfert, 37, of Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., and Kenneth Giaquinto, 37, of Valhalla, N.Y., swam to the shoreline.
Joseph Ceglia, 33, of White Plains, N.Y., was clinging to branches in the river and rescuers pulled him ashore safely.
Rescuers spotted Engel floating unconscious in the middle of the river and managed to pull him aboard a police boat. He was rushed to a local hospital, but could not be saved.
"Peter is a unique soul who is so special that words cannot describe him," Giaquinto said of Engel, who specialized in treatment of addictions.
"When in his presence you can feel his joyful and contagious passion for life."
There was no sight of Dooley for nearly two hours before rescuers spotted him holding desperately onto a tree near the river's edge.
"It was a very tough spot," Harper said. "It was thick trees and brush and very steep slopes."
When members of the Croton Fire Department joined the rescue effort, their boat capsized. Three volunteer firefighters were swept about a quarter-mile downstream, reaching the point where the Croton River joins the Hudson River. They were all able to swim ashore safely.
But Dooley was still holding onto the tree for dear life as night fell. About an hour after he was first spotted, he lost his grip on the tree - just as an NYPD air-sea-rescue helicopter zoomed to the scene, Harper and NYPD officials said.
Police on board the helicopter used the chopper's spotlight to track Dooley as his head bobbed in the current. He was swept about a half-mile down the river, but because the NYPD helicopter crew kept the spotlight on him as he drifted, rescuers in a Croton police boat were able to pluck him from the water, the officials said.
Dooley was rushed to Westchester County Medical Center, where he was treated for extreme exposure and hypothermia.
The five men had scouted the river prior to launching their raft, and all had experienced more intense rapids in the past, Wolfert said. Several of them were trained as first responders and been involved in water rescues.
"We were not novices," Wolfert said. "I just want to make that clear. Not to make it sound like our decision [to go rafting] was a good one. We regret that decision."
bpaddock@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/...d_westche.html

[wish4fish]

they shud not bin out there!