Search paused for kayaker over Willamette Falls

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — An all-day search for a kayaker who plunged over the Willamette Falls in Oregon City late Saturday night is on hold until Monday, authorities said.

Late Sunday afternoon, a body was recovered in the Willamette River, but the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office said it was not the kayaker. “The body appears to have been under water for some time,” authorities said, and an investigation into this incident continues.

The search began just before 11 p.m. when multiple people called 911 to report a kayaker “in distress” just upstream of Willamette Falls. Other witnesses then claimed to see the kayaker, an adult man, go over the falls and not resurface.

Emergency responders, including the US Coast Guard and a Portland Police Bureau aircraft, rushed to the scene. The search continued until around 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Searchers found his blue hard-shell kayak Sunday morning.

Meanwhile, community members, like Paul Kays, were left wondering how this could happen.

“You need to be aware of your water surroundings when you go out on the river,” Kays said. “We kayak and whitewater raft and it’s like, you don’t want to go into a spot where you don’t know what’s going on around you, like is there a waterfall.”

Other people who live upstream from the falls on the water told KOIN 6 News they kayak up there all of they time – but in the summer, when the water level is lower and calmer.

No further information, including the kayaker’s identity, has been released at this time.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office.