River lowered to save man

Press, 8 January 1980, Page 2

River lowered to save man

..PA Tauranga - The McLaren Falls power ''station was shut down on • Sunday to enable a man trap■ped on a ledge by the Wairoa -River to escape.

-• The Tauranga police said ~ yesterday' that shutting down the station lowered the water "level by 2m and reduced the ■rforce of the water enough to 'enable the man to get back "into the river and float to -safety. X Leslie Reginald Richards, • aged 24, of Tauranga, and * Douglas William Rablin, of Z Hamilton, had been floating 'on inner tubes down the fast- ' flowing stretch of river bet- - ween the McLaren Falls and

Ruahihi when Mr Richards was swept into a side fork leading to a natural tunnel.

He managed to get on to a ledge where he was trapped by the force of the current. Mr Rablin got down to Ruahihi where he gave the alarm at 5.22 p.m. A police search and rescue team under Sergeant F. G. Gunst went to the area. Sergeant Gunst and Mr Rablin tried to get down ropes to where Mr Richards was trapped. B” then the river level had dropped and Mr Richards was able to get back into the main channel and was floating'down to Ruahihi.