Just watching the story on the news ... Jordan's as big of a ham as ever!

Everyone is safe and sound. We just got done having breakfast with five of the seven (two separate parties). They're actually friends / clients of ours and we picked them up from the home where the search & rescue crew dropped them off below the island.

A lesson learned here, not only for our friends who didn't realize the upstream effects of the big strorm that rolled through here ... but perhaps for the S&R crew as well.

They did not attempt a rescue last night because they did not know the logistics of where to launch / retrieve their craft and deemed the effort dangerous.

In actuality, we could have lauched a boat several hundred yards above the island they were on and taken out several hundred yards below ... there was no reason the youngsters needed to spend the night out there ... especially in light of the fact that no one really knew for sure how high the water was going to get before daylight (it peaked around 3 AM at that spot).

It's a topic that I'll bring up at our next Guides' Assoc. meeting that perhaps there should be some form of a contact list for the county crew for people that are familiar with the area to assist. Our friends attempted to ask them to call us, but the noise of the water made it impossible to communicate effectively.

The S&R crew came from Sequim and had no experience whatsoever on the Sol Duc River. Any number of guides that float that stretch on a regular basis would have been able to ferry the people to safety last night as there was ample time to lauch and ferry before darkness and even if dark, the task would have been easily accomplished as it's hardly the worst water in that stretch of river.

Anyhow everyone is safe and thanks to all inlcluding Three Rivers Resort for keeping the kids filled with an endless supply of hot chocolate this morning