Kalispell, Plains women drown in canoe accident
<p>Carol Heater of Kalispell and Fern Johnson of Plains drowned in a canoeing accident Wednesday in the Eagle River north of Anchorage, Alaska. The women had only been in Alaska for a few hours when the accident claimed their lives. </p>
Two Montana women — one from Kalispell and the other from Plains — had only been in Alaska for a few hours when they drowned Wednesday in a canoeing accident north of Anchorage.
The victims were Carol Heater, 48, of Kalispell, and Fern Johnson, 60, of Plains.
The women, along with Johnson’s husband, Robert Johnson, were all in a canoe on Eagle River when they came upon a log jam blocking the river, Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Dave Parker said.
The three were accompanied by Eagle River resident Robert Voris, who was in a kayak.
“The Johnsons and Heater put their canoe up against the jam in a slow-moving current, but as they tried to paddle to the east bank of the river they were caught in a faster current, which overturned the canoe,” Parker said.
Robert Johnson was able to get up on the log jam and Voris escaped injury, but the women were caught under the logs and drowned.
All of them were wearing life preservers. The three Montana residents were visiting Alaska and had arrived in the state that afternoon.
On her Facebook page, Fern Johnson listed her employer as Clark Fork Valley Hospital. She was also president of the Plains Woman’s Club.
According to information online, Heater was the program director at the Sleep Medicine Center in Kalispell.
Alaska State Troopers, the Anchorage Fire Department and Police Department helped recover the bodies, which were taken to the Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office.