Couple sore after rescue from flooding via helicopter
KINGFISHER (AP) — LeRoy and Bernice Krittenbrink saw the water running across U.S. Highway 81, so they did the wise thing — they chose not to drive through it, turned around and headed in the other direction.
But sometimes, they ruefully noted Monday, even when you do the right thing, disaster can strike.
Soon after turning around, the lifelong Kingfisher residents found themselves floating across a farm field, after floodwaters hit their pickup and knocked it off the highway. More than an hour and a half later, their rescue — made in daring fashion by Oklahoma Highway Patrol helicopter pilots and the local fire chief — became a national sensation as it was broadcast on live television.
LeRoy Krittenbrink said the couple, who live in the south part of Kingfisher, had headed to their farm north of town on Sunday morning, even as the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin were soaking much of central Oklahoma and causing waterways — including nearby Kingfisher Creek — to quickly rise and flood.
On their way home, they came across the water on the highway, turned around and soon became famous, although not in a fashion they’d prefer.
“We got to ... the north end of town, and there was water across the street,” said LeRoy, 72. “I said, ’We’re not driving through it.’ So we turned around and went back the same way we came, because we knew the road was good.
“Then a wall of water hit us ... We turned around to stay out of the water and we got right in it.”
At first, the pickup got hung up in a fence, but the swift water soon moved the vehicle past that obstacle.
Both the Krittenbrinks had cell phones on them, so they called a daughter who lives in Kingfisher and as well as 911 to notify emergency officials. The assurance that somebody knew of their predicament kept them from panicking, they said.
The pickup would not run, but the battery still worked, allowing them to use their power windows. The pickup started to sink only after its front end tilted down, allowing water to flow in through the air vents, he said.
Bernice, 66, said they heard helicopters and planes flying above. OHP Lt. Bill Reitz, riding in one of those helicopters, motioned to the Krittenbrinks to learn how many people needed to be rescued. Reitz soon threw the couple life preservers.
“He was going to throw them to the back of the pickup. He missed, but he caught the mirror on the right-hand side,” LeRoy said.
Meanwhile, other emergency officials were hatching a rescue plan. Kingfisher Fire Chief Randy Poindexter — who made the first helicopter-assisted rescue of his career earlier Sunday morning — was to be lowered into the pickup’s bed with a safety basket, in which the two OHP pilots in the helicopter, Lt. Brian Sturgill and Trooper Joe Howard, could carry the Krittenbrinks to safety.
But as they prepared the equipment nearby, troopers in a plane circling above passed along an ominous warning — the flood waters had risen so quickly that a basket rescue wouldn’t be possible. Poindexter said the Krittenbrinks were holding on to a toolbox in the pickup’s bed.
So Sturgill, Howard and Poindexter chose to improvise and carry the couple to safety using the helicopter’s skids.
“It probably wasn’t the best thing to do, but we have two people alive” as a result, Poindexter said Monday.
As one of the Krittenbrinks’ daughters who lives in Utah watched on television, Poindexter tried to lift Bernice out of the swift waters and move her to calmer waters, but he was unable to maintain his grip and she fell back into the water.
Guided by Howard’s voice commands, Sturgill then lowered the helicopter’s skids into the water, and Poindexter was able to maneuver Bernice so that her legs were over the skids, and Sturgill carried them back to the highway, more than a mile from where the pickup had been carried.
After twice failing to maneuver LeRoy onto the skids, Poindexter succeeded in doing so.
“I just held on tight,” Poindexter said. “We had to get those individuals out of the swift water.”
Sturgill and Howard said the helicopter wasn’t designed to carry that much weight on a skid, but despite the danger, emergency officials were determined to rescue the Krittenbrinks.
“We knew we were their only hope in this deal,” Howard said.
LeRoy said that after one of the times he fell off a skid, he landed on a tree.