2 Dead, 2 Rescued After Raft Flips In Washington River Rapid

GLACIER, WA — Two people are dead after a commercial raft they were in flipped in a northern Washington river near the Canadian border.

Two females, two males and a guide were rafting around 3 p.m. Tuesday in a rapid near the Snowline neighborhood in Glacier when the raft flipped, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

The guide rescued the two females but the two males were swept downstream on the North Fork of the Nooksack River.

Search and rescue teams were sent to the area with water rescue technicians, dog units, drone operators and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter.

Kayakers with local fire crews found a young male about four hours later submerged in a logjam. He was about a half-mile from where the raft flipped. Search operations were suspended at dusk.

The search for the second male resumed Wednesday morning. Border patrol units with a helicopter found his body downriver of the Highway 542 bridge, just west of Glacier.

Neither of the males, who were wearing wetsuits, helmets and life jackets, showed any obvious signs of trauma. Authorities believe both drowned.

Their names were not immediately released.

The deaths come after Robert Gray, 63, of Mill Creek, Washington, died while whitewater rafting on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Custer County, Idaho. Gray was floating in a river May 31 when the raft hit a logjam and threw him into the water, authorities said at the time. The current swept him away, and his body was later found stuck in a logjam.