Woman drowns at Huntington Gorge

RICHMOND — A woman was missing and presumed drowned following an accident at the Huntington Gorge in Richmond on Sunday.

Richmond police said two other people were able to get out of the raging water. One was transported to the University of Vermont Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries, and the other walked from the scene, said Richmond police Cpl. Rick Greenough.

Public safety officials were summoned to the gorge at about 6:40 p.m. and worked until about 9:30 p.m. before calling off the recovery efforts until morning.

Greenough said the authorities were responding to a call of "swimmers down in the Huntington Gorge."

"This is a popular swim hole," Greenough said, adding that there is a sign nearby with the names of people who have drowned in the gorge. "It's not even updated, that's how often it happens, unfortunately."

Police are withholding the names of all the swimmers involved until the woman's body is recovered from the water and families are notified, Greenough said.

Richmond police, Richmond Fire Department and Richmond Rescue, along with Colchester Technical Rescue, Bolton Fire Department and Vermont State Police were among agencies at the scene.

Colchester Technical Rescue and Stowe Technical Rescue had swimmers in the water during recovery efforts Sunday night.

The case is considered a drowning and a recovery mission, state police Lt. James Whitcomb told the Burlington Free Press.

Greenough said the later hour and the location of the body were reasons the woman's body could not be removed from the water Sunday.

Flood lights were brought into the area to help, as several recovery workers went on a raft into the water to look for the woman. A fire truck with lights on parked diagonally across Dugway Road, blocking the area where emergency personnel worked.

Rain waters throughout the year make currents stronger and unpredictable, Greenough said. He said his own training and experience tells him that recent rains "probably played a part today."

The gorge has been the site of more than two dozen drownings and suicides, including the drowning of a Vermont State Police rescue worker.

"Don't swim here," Greenough said. "Honestly, when we've lost 20 plus people over the last 30 years, to include a highly trained state police diver, I don't know what it's going to take to convince people that this is not a safe place to swim. … This happens almost annually, and I don't want to make any more notifications. It's terrible."

This story was first posted online July 5, 2015. Contributing: Mike Donoghue, Free Press. Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/LizMurraySMC.