If fate had dealt my family a darker hand this week, the Ruttles may have been making funeral arrangements for my older brother Perry.
Last Saturday afternoon, he was down in Elbow catching some sun on Lake Diefenbaker with a few friends when he was asked to help unload a couple of Sea-doos into the water with his buddy. For whatever reason, his buddy – who won’t be named here because he already feels terrible enough – wasn’t watching where he was going while doing a good speed and smashed into Perry, knocking him for a loop into the water and doing some heavy damage. After some drama that included a very real threat of drowning due to the seven broken ribs he’d just sustained, Perry was eventually loaded up into an ambulance and sent to Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, where he still was at the time this particular issue went to the printers.
My brother is nothing short of ridiculously lucky that he still has his life. Now if you think I’m being overly dramatic with that statement, or that perhaps I’m too close to the situation – I mean, he IS my brother, no matter how much physical and/or emotional torture we put each other through as kids – then I’d say you’re both right and wrong.
You’re right in the sense that I’m obviously close to this particular situation because it involved my brother, and I’m very happy that he’s still here with us. (Dammit, now he’s gonna read that and never let me hear the end of it)
However, you’re wrong in the sense that I’m a reporter whose job is to lay out the facts for my reading public, and here’s a fact for you: Lake Diefenbaker and the connecting Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saskatchewan River have claimed FOUR lives in a span of just two weeks.
Perry could’ve, and perhaps even should’ve been number five, given the circumstances and his injuries.
Allow me to recap the deadly grip that our local waters have had very recently:
On Sunday, July 16, young teenager Justin Warwaruk, 17 years old and freshly graduated from Outlook High School, jumped into the waters of the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saskatchewan River just about 12 clicks south of Saskatoon. He wasn’t seen again until the RCMP had found his body five days later. A community came together in sorrow, and it’s something still being felt in Outlook and the surrounding area that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.
On Thursday, July 20, two local men lost their lives while out boating on Lake Diefenbaker near Elbow when their boat capsized. That same night, a major storm rolled through the region and made its presence felt, including shaking the lake and producing waves as high as almost two meters. The first man was brought to the beach and someone performed CPR, but he had already died. The second man wasn’t found until the next morning because of the ferocity of the storm preventing rescue teams from conducting a thorough search.
On Saturday, July 29, coincidentally just a little bit after Perry’s incident, a man fell out of a boat into the water on Lake Diefenbaker closer to Outlook, which called the local RCMP and rescue teams. Hell, I was sitting in the Modern Café in Outlook with my buddy Alex when I saw a cruiser go screaming out of town. As of now, the man hasn’t been found, and honestly, when even a matter of HOURS goes by in the case of someone missing in the water, it’s safe to say at that point that you’re looking for a body.
I guess that isn’t even two weeks, huh? Thirteen days is more accurate.
Two years ago, I started a weekly feature called ‘Stored Stories’ where I highlight what made news in the local area as far back as 100 years ago. I can’t tell you how many headlines I’ve come across where people have drowned in the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saskatchewan River or in the body of water that became known as Lake Diefenbaker.
I wish more people would take heed and learn not to underestimate the water. I know the Â鶹ÊÓƵ Saskatchewan River looks pretty docile from up on the traffic bridge driving into town every day, and that Lake Diefenbaker is all too inviting on brochures and websites, but looks can be deceiving, and in the case of the last two weeks around these parts, they most certainly are.
Respect the water, people. Because it doesn’t have to respect you back.
For this week, that’s been the Ruttle Report.
