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Lost in the flood

Casey Burnette, the only survivor of last year’s Rutherford Creek disaster, recalls that fateful night

On Saturday, Oct. 18 last year, Daryl Stevenson, 31, and Michael Benoit, 29, died when their Volvo plunged off a washed out bridge into Rutherford Creek. Sometime either earlier or later that night a second vehicle carrying three people went into Rutherford Creek. The bodies of Jamie Burnette, 27, and Edward Elliot, 26, were never found. Casey Burnette, 22, survived. This is his story.

Record rainfall from a storm saturated the south coast of British Columbia in the middle of October, 2003, swelling the creeks and rivers that drain the steep terrain in the Sea to Sky corridor. But it didn’t prevent Casey Burnette, his older brother, Jamie, and their friend, Edward Elliot, from commuting from their jobs in Whistler to their homes in Pemberton.

As Casey, Jamie and Ed left their jobs at Moe Joe’s night club at 3 a.m. that Saturday the rain continued to pour down, as it had been doing for hours. It had been a good night at the club, for the fall, with a few conventioneers and many locals enjoying the evening.

Jamie, 27, the bar manager, was driving their red 1995 Ford Blazer the 35 kilometres back to Pemberton. Jamie had moved to the corridor from Ontario in 1997. He and his wife, Katie, had been married less than a month and had a four-month-old son, Cole. Casey, 22, was a bartender. He had moved to Whistler in 2001 to spend time with his brother and was in the back seat. Ed, 26, a doorman, was sitting in the front passenger seat talking to Jamie about how the bar was going as the SUV came around a foggy corner on Highway 99 and onto a bridge. Suddenly, Jamie slammed on the brakes, the vehicle skidded on the rain-soaked pavement and the conversation stopped.

Casey looked up through the front windshield, grabbed the seat behind Jamie and braced himself. A second later the SUV plunged off the bridge.

"What’s going on!" Ed demanded sitting bolt upright as the SUV hit the raging waters of Rutherford Creek.

"We’re in the river!" Casey screamed as rocks smashed his window and gushing water threw him across the back seat.

As freezing water quickly filled the vehicle, Jamie punched the driver’s door window with his elbow, trying to shatter the glass. Ed was trying to jump through the space between the driver’s seat and the passenger’s seat into the back.

It was completely black. The SUV was being pummelled by rocks and trees as it was tossed and rolled by the swollen creek, and as water filled the trunk. The water rose quickly to Casey’s waist, then to his chest. Casey looked into the front where Jamie and Ed had more air. Suddenly the SUV tilted nose down, spilling water into the front seat. Then Casey heard Jamie speak.

"Calm down," Jamie said. Ten or fifteen seconds had gone by since the SUV landed upright in the river. "We can’t get out now. Wait for the car to fill up. Once the car fills up take a last deep breath and then go out the windows."

Casey listened. His older brother had always looked out for him. Whenever there was a problem in the bar, if the owner wasn’t there Jamie would always sort something out. He calmed me, Casey thought.

But now the water filled the front of the SUV almost to the roof. Casey feared maybe none of them would get out. Then, his mind clicked. There are two other guys in the car, Casey thought. Water is half way up my broken window. And the only thing that’s stoppin’ them from getting out is me. I’ve got to get out.

With water near the top of the broken window, Casey grabbed both sides of the window frame, kicked his feet and pushed his head out into the river. Up to his neck in the freezing water, Burnette pushed away from the vehicle, turned, and in a second the current took him away.

Spinning and tossing and turning. Burnette was above the water then below the water. With his chin just above the surface of the water, he took one last breath. Then, he was upside down. With sand and water clogging his eyes, Burnette was in pitch-blackness.

Suddenly, as if taken by the wind, Burnette was floating on his back and completely comfortable going down the river. He looked straight up into the rain and the blackness of the night, got a breath of fresh air and for a brief second relaxed and went limp. But the water was so cold, and then rocks started hitting him and he was tossing and turning again in the raging water.

With rocks banging into him, Burnette tried to get air into his lungs. He was twisting and turning under the water in the middle of the river trying to hold his breath. He was determined not to die. No not now! Then, he was being dragged along the bottom of the river. Burnette had been swept out of the main channel but his ordeal was just beginning. Tasting dirt and sand in his mouth, he surfaced, spat out a mouthful of water and got a breath of fresh air. Then, he was under the water again.

Bouncing off rocks, his arms and legs out of control in the fast current, Burnette tried to keep his head above water. Breathing until he felt water coming in, he gulped and spat out a half mouthful of water. With three seconds to get a breath of air, he took a deep breath and held on. Then, he went under.

A twig brushed across his head. Burnette grabbed it and the twig crumbled. He grabbed a stick. It broke. Bumping along the bottom of the river, Burnette dug his hands into the soil and gravel and grabbed a handful of roots. The roots broke and, he smashed into more rocks. Rocks were hitting Burnette in the back of the head when suddenly, he popped above the water. He got a few breaths. Then, he got a good full breath.

More water and sand filled his eyes as he clutched and clawed in the river that raged around him. Then he bumped a branch. He grabbed it. I’m not letting go . Using all his upper body strength, he pulled himself up out of the river onto land. He staggered a metre and collapsed on some river rocks between a cluster of small trees. He’d been in the river a mere 45 seconds.

For the next 20 minutes, Burnette lay on his stomach trying to get his strength back as boulders sounding like war drums crashed down the river.

"Help!" Burnette yelled. He was afraid of the river that was inches away and, he feared boulders would come on shore. I’ve got to get out of here! Trying to get away from the river, Burnette walked in a straight line for three or four metres and found himself right back in the water. He grabbed the nearest tree and pulled himself back to shore.

He’d come out on a three metre by four-and-a-half metre island of small trees where the Rutherford Creek joins the Green River, several football field lengths downstream from where the bridge washed out. He could only see about a metre and there was water all around him. He went back to the middle of the island and lay down on the rocks in the fetal position between the trees. But he knew the rocks would draw heat away from his body. There was a clump of small trees on the highest point of the island. Burnette crawled up and wedged himself into the trees. He couldn’t stop shivering and knew he was in a hypothermic state. His knees, back and head were hurt and he started to pass out. I’ve got to stay awake, Burnette told himself.

Dressed only in two T-shirts, a pair of jeans and socks, Burnette put his hands in his armpits, breathed in through his nose, out his mouth and down his shirt trying to keep warm. All he could think about was Jamie and Ed.

"Help! Jamie! Ed!" Burnette yelled, hoping Jamie and Ed were near. Then, Jamie’s last words in the SUV came back to him.

"Relax," he heard his older brother say.

I hadn’t known how to react when the SUV started filling with water

, Casey lamented.

The summer before last, Jamie had told Casey about a friend who survived after his car went into the Rideau River near Ottawa. The friend got out when the car filled with water. After that, Jamie always knew that you wait until the car fills up and the water spits you out.

I’ve always trusted him, Burnette heard himself thinking, choking back tears. He was a good older brother to me then, you know ?

"Help! Help! Burnette called out as rain poured down. "Jamie! Ed!"

Fast flowing water was all around the small island and huge boulders were smashing into each other.

"Help!" Burnette yelled into the blackness, hoping someone knew he was missing. But no one would know he was missing.

"Jamie! Ed!" Burnette called out every 10 seconds. Then he called out once a minute. Then it was once every half hour. Burnette thought about Kate and Cole. He wondered what time it was and if Kate would know they were missing. She’d be calling around looking for them, trying to find out what time they had left the bar.

Rain dripped off the branches into Burnette’s hair and ran down the sides of his face. His arms and legs had gone completely numb. Burnette felt himself leaning and falling into a tree. Stay awake! he ordered himself. For hours he fought to stay awake in the darkness while rocks crashed down the river, snapping branches and trees like so much kindling.

Some time towards morning, far off in the distance through the trees, Burnette thought he saw lights. Then he caught a glimpse of yellow lights on top of a truck as it drove up the highway, turned around and went back down the road.

"Help!" Burnette called out.

But, Burnette knew no one could hear him. He was cut and bruised all over his body and didn’t know if he was bleeding. And, he feared the river might rise. If that happened, Burnette knew he would have to try and get off the island in the dark. But, his biggest fear was listening to the rocks rolling down the river and one of them crashing on shore through the clump of trees.

Daybreak was grey and overcast with continued pelting rain. Burnette watched the truck with the lights and knew that’s where the road was. He knew if he could walk, he could find his way out. He would wait another 10 or 15 minutes and make sure it was good and light. I made it this long , he told himself. Ten minutes later, he stood up. Wobbly and freezing, he hung onto a tree until he got his balance back.

Burnette could see he was about 10 steps away from a section of the river that branched off from the main channel. Cautiously, he crawled across the island. He knew, he would have to go back in the water but he didn’t want to look at the river. As he stepped into a shallow channel that branched off from the river, Burnette felt himself falling. Terrified, he might be swept downstream, he grabbed another small tree and got back on the island. Fuelled by the adrenaline of another close call and with the wind and rain whipping his face, Burnette saw for the first time in the morning gloom, the river. Huge trees were flying through the water as boulders thundered downstream. The power of the torrent was awesome.

But he had to move on. Stumbling over stones near the bank of the creek, past logs, across small patches of sand and through puddles of ankle-deep water, Burnette came to a waist-high logjam in a small, swift channel. Stepping into the freezing water, he crawled through the fast-flowing channel, grabbing boulders, trying not to slip and be swept into the main river.

Afraid that the logjam would shift, Burnette tested every move as he crawled across a log above the water. The opposite riverbank was up past his shoulders. To get there he’d have to reach one metre across the channel and jump. Burnette knew, he didn’t have the energy to jump. Cautiously getting to his feet, he stepped on a branch and reached for the opposite shore. Suddenly the whole logjam shifted and the branch broke. With his feet giving way, Burnette lurched across the channel, grabbed a tree and pulled himself up onto a mossy bank.

Looking up through the trees, Burnette saw a construction site a good 200 or 300 metres away. Weak and disoriented and with twigs and rocks digging into his feet, Burnette stumbled and crawled along the riverbank. Veering off from the river, he took a straight line into the trees. That’s when he saw the flashing light on the truck driving towards the bridge. Cramming his way between the trees, Burnette ran through the brush trying to get to the road before the truck came back.

Tracy Chillibecki, the equipment superintendent at the Rutherford Creek power project south of Pemberton, was driving along the side of the road after checking to see if any damage had been done to the powerhouse by the bridge washout. All of a sudden the headlights of his pickup truck caught something black coming out of the ditch. A man, looking like a scared animal, stood up. Chillibecki slowed the pickup down, stopped right beside him and opened the power window.

"How are ya’ doin’?" Chillibecki asked uncertainly.

"Not too good," Burnette answered.

"Get the hell in here," Chillibecki said.

Burnette opened the door and got into the vehicle. All the colour had drained from his hypothermic, shaking body . Chillibecki grabbed a handful of jackets and threw them on top of him. Then, he drove straight towards the health centre in Pemberton.

"What happened?" Chillibecki asked turning to Burnette.

"I was with my brother and a friend," Burnette answered. "We were coming home from work and, we didn’t know the bridge was out and we crossed and all of a sudden bang! We were in the water."

"In the water!" Chillibecki exclaimed.

"My brother’s inside and my buddy," Burnette lamented.

Chillibecki radioed Brad Mykko, the project manager for the Rutherford Creek power project, informing him he had picked up a survivor and that two people were believed missing inside a red Blazer. Myyko confirmed two people were missing. Chillibecki looked at Burnette and his heart sank. It was about 7:30 a.m., and more than four hours since the SUV had plunged into Rutherford Creek. Noise coming from rocks two metres in diameter rolling down the river sounded like explosion after explosion and banks of earth 12 metres high were collapsing into the torrent.

I’ve seen the fury of this water, Chillibecki thought to himself, there’s only one guy and he’s come quite a distance. Chillibecki didn’t think there were going to be any more survivors.

Liz Lyle, a registered nurse, was at the front desk of the one-person Pemberton Health Centre when the doorbell rang. Lyle opened the door and saw a pickup truck and Burnette standing there soaking wet and shivering. Burnette walked gingerly into the clinic.

"There was an accident and, he and his brother and a friend drove into Rutherford Creek," Chillibecki told the nurse as, he helped Burnette sit down on a bed. "He’s in shock. Take care of him."

Lyle stripped Burnette, put him into bed and covered him with a heated bear hugger blanket.

Burnette never saw Chillibecki again. All he knew was that the man who picked him up and drove him to the health centre was from Edmonton.

"I just want to thank him for the ride," Burnette says. "I thank God he was there to pick me up."