Two people were missing and presumed drowned in separate incidents Saturday on the North Olympic Peninsula.
U.S. Coast Guard helicopter search and rescue crews from Port Angeles and Grays Harbor were called to the Duckabush and Quinault rivers, respectively, to assist with finding the missing people.
According to Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class Leonard Newsom of Port Angeles, a helicopter was dispatched to the Brinnon area to search a 3-mile stretch of the Duckabush River for a missing rafter.
“Two men were in a raft that overturned,” Newsom said. “One person got out of the water and made it to shore and was able to call 9-1-1.”
On the West End, a Grays Harbor-based Coast Guard helicopter was called to the Quinault Reservation to help search for a missing 16-year-old tribal member who attempted to swim across the 90-foot mouth of the river about 2:20 p.m., according to a Quinault Nation Public Safety report.
The boy was one of three swimming across the river, an area known for treacherous currents, tribal police said. The other two boys made it safely to shore.
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