Canoers from youth summer camp rescued from choppy Delaware River

A group of children from a local summer camp were rescued from the Delaware River after the current started flipping their canoes.

Port Jervis fire crews and two other departments responded to the Delaware near Tri-State Rock at about 10:40 a.m. after a report of eight children and two adults whose canoes were being overturned by the choppy waves.

The adults and children were rescued and did not suffer any injuries, Port Jervis Fire Chief Keith Brown said. He added that all the canoers were wearing life jackets.

Allen Crouthamel, owner of water sports rental business Silver Canoe & Whitewater Rafting, was relieved to hear the rescue was successful. He said taking a canoe onto the river when the river’s local level is still running four feet higher than usual — like it was from late Monday into early Tuesday — is difficult and can be unsafe.

Canoes are unstable and capsize easily.

“It’s not recommended unless you are highly experienced with those boats,” Crouthamel said, adding that businesses like his are prohibited by law from renting out canoes when the water is as high as it was following Monday’s storm. “We are only operating rafts at these water levels because they are more suited to less skilled individuals and are less prone to tipping and taking on water.”

Private citizens and summer camps are allowed, though, to take out their own canoes on certain stretches of the Delaware even in adverse conditions, though the National Parks Service does not recommend it.