Two Ohiopyle men named national heroes for rafting rescue
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Patrick McCarty will recieve the Carnegie Hero Award, along with Eric Martin, for saving the lives of two women stuck on a raft in high water in the Youghiogheny River in Ohiopyle.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Patrick McCarty points to the area where he and Eric Martin saved two women from a raft that became stuck on a bridge pier in the middle of the Youghiogheny River during high water in Ohiopyle.
For the Observer-Reporter
Eric Martin, owner of Wilderness Voyageurs in Ohiopyle, was one of two men honored as a Carnegie hero for saving two women in 2017. Martin is shown in this 2014 file photo.
Two whitewater rafting guides from Ohiopyle were among 18 people from across the U.S. and Canada named Carnegie heroes for putting their own lives at risk to save others.
Patrick Nolan McCarty, 29, and Eric Martin, 47, saved 55-year-old Annette Johnson, whose overturned raft had flowed past the take-out point and had became stuck at a bridge pier in the middle of the swollen and swift river on June 26, 2017. Partially submerged, Johnson clutched the raft as her friend, Raecyne Bechtold, 45, was lying on top of it.
Martin, who operates Wilderness Voyageurs, and McCarty, business executive director of Laurel Highlands River Tours, wasted no time in launching single-person kayaks into the river without any safety gear.
When Martin arrived at the pier, Johnson grabbed his kayak and the raft dislodged and floated away. Bechtold was still atop it, headed toward a 20-foot waterfall. While Martin towed Johnson downstream toward the nearest riverbank, McCarty paddled downstream to head off the raft.
He used his kayak to slow the raft and guided it to a bank where Bechtold reached safely. Seeing Martin and Johnson stuck on an exposed rock ledge, McCarty paddled over and secured Johnson with a rope so the three could wade toward a bank safely.
McCarty said the men did what any guide would’ve done.
“We were just in the right place at the right time,” he said, adding there was no time to think about safety gear. “The water level was high. Time was of the essence.”
McCarty, a volunteer fireman since he was 15, said emergency situations aren’t new to him, but he wouldn’t call himself a hero. That, he said, is a term he reserves for the military men and women who serve in war.
“I didn’t have people shooting at me,” said McCarty. “I don’t mind being called a hero. I just wouldn’t call myself one.”
Martin learned sometime last spring that he and McCarty were going to be nominated, but the two didn’t officially find out about the recognition until recently.
“So it wasn’t a total surprise, but I’m honored, humbled – it’s the sort of stuff we do,” Martin said. “At the end of the day, two people are alive, and that’s what we’re celebrating.”
Being a part of the whitewater business, Martin said both he and McCarty have been involved in rescues, but in this case, the men knew they had seconds to act.
“There’s hundreds of river guides in that town that could have pulled that off, but just Patrick and I happened to be there,” Martin said. “That’s a big win for people who do what we do.”
Bechtold said after they capsized they were fortunate to be able to float to the pier.
“I was definitely not sure if we were going to make it,” Bechtold said.
Johnson, who didn’t know how to swim, said they weren’t in the water long, but it seemed like it lasted forever.
When Johnson saw the waterfall ahead of her, she closed her eyes and kept them shut during her rescue. She said she listened to Martin’s voice, answering his questions and reminding herself to stay calm.
At one point, Johnson said she was told she could stand and walk, but as soon as she tried, she fell again. She said the men came for her again. When she got to the shore, Johnson said she didn’t know where Bechtold was.
“I just sat at the shore, thinking she’s gone,” Johnson said.
Then, she heard Bechtold call her name and felt relief wash over her.
The women said they haven’t been in contact with Martin or McCarty since the incident, but expressed their continued gratitude for the risks they took.
“I would love to go and thank them in person,” Johnson said. “They risked their lives for strangers.”
Jewels Phraner, spokeswoman for the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, said the Carnegie Medal was given to 16 in the U.S. and two in Canada this year. The organization gets about 1,000 nominations annually.
Phraner said the award isn’t about who was the most heroic; rather, it’s about the selfless acts of those who put their lives on the line to save another’s. In McCarty and Martin’s case, their actions went beyond their normal duties, Phraner said.
The fund’s president, Eric Zahren, said the guides’ expertise didn’t lessen the chance they were taking.
“Oftentimes, in the commission’s case investigations and subsequent deliberations, expertise on the part of the rescuer(s) can factor against the riskiness of the act. However, in this scenario, the rescuers’ expertise and familiarity with the location did not significantly mitigate or diminish risk as much as it made the risks of acting, without full safety gear, eminently clear. And yet they acted, without hesitation, at extraordinary risk to themselves,” he said.
McCarty said the men were nominated by Scott Patton, his former teacher, who learned about the rescue.
A total of 10,062 Carnegie medals have been awarded since the organization’s inception in 1904. Awardees or their survivors also receive a financial grant. Throughout the Pittsburgh-based fund’s history, which was established by industrialist Andrew Carnegie, $40.5 million has been given in one-time grants, scholarship aid, death benefits and continuing assistance.
McCarty said the financial assistance he receives will be used to further develop a water rescue team at Ohiopyle.