2 paddlers rescued from Stillwater

ORONO – Two canoeists hoping to get in a late-afternoon paddle Sunday on the Stillwater River escaped disaster when their vessel capsized and sent one of the paddlers over a dam.

Eric Levesque, 22, originally from Fort Kent, swam to safety, but his canoe partner, Jason Berube, 23, also from Fort Kent, went over a dam near the Stillwater Avenue bridge and had to be pulled from the frigid water by a rescue boat crew.

Berube was taken by ambulance to Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor where he was treated Sunday night for significant hypothermia. Berube was released from the hospital late Sunday night. Levesque, who suffered minor hypothermia, was treated briefly on scene.

“They were lucky,” said Sgt. Doug Tibbetts with the Maine Warden Service. “They both had life jackets on … they weren’t the best life jackets … but they saved their lives, no doubt about it.”

Several police, fire and ambulance crews congregated with wardens late Sunday afternoon in a parking lot across from the University of Maine campus where the river floats past the university heating plant. A large group of students, curious about the commotion, gathered briefly and watched crews fish the paddlers’ red canoe out of the water.

Officials did not have the actual temperature of the water – saying only that it was cold – but ice chunks still floated in parts of the Stillwater.

Berube was responsive when he was rescued from the water but couldn’t move his extremities, Tibbetts said, adding that a person probably could tolerate the water only 10 minutes before hypothermia set in.

Levesque and Berube put their canoe in the water sometime after 4 p.m. up near Gilman Falls in Old Town, Game Warden Chris Dyer said. The canoeists had gone less than two miles before they ran into trouble.

“They were still up above the bridge when they both started paddling on the left side,” Dyer said. “The current was strong and the canoe rolled sometime before they reached the bridge.

“They had planned to get their canoe out of the water before they reached the dam,” Dyer said, adding that both young men were familiar with the waters.

Two witnesses who live in an apartment complex that borders the river’s west side saw the canoe roll over and called 911. Levesque swam to the west bank and was pulled to safety by the witnesses. Berube did not make it to the river’s edge and continued down toward the dam.

The dam normally has a 70-foot vertical drop, Dyer said, but the high water might have saved Berube because it covered rocks that normally sit only feet below the water’s surface.

“We had quick response and were able to get a rescue boat into the water in no time,” Dyer said.

Wardens also were busy last week assisting a pair of canoeists in Kenduskeag Stream after they were stranded on an island of rocks for more than four hours.