Maine teen gets help for family after boat sinks 600 yards

Authorities say a 16-year-old Maine woman swam 600 yards to get help from her sister and father after her boat sank.

Gianna French, of Skowhegan, was fishing with her father Gary and her 14-year-old sister, Sierra, at the Barlin Pond in western Maine on Sunday when their 12-foot aluminum boat began to take water. Morning Sentinel reported.

Kiana tried to get out of the water using her sister’s cowboy boot, but the couple was “in the water” for the moment the couple had the boat, she said.

“I made sure she was okay. I tried to convince her to wear her dad’s life jacket,” French recalled Monday. “He was in shock. He was not trying. He hung on the boat. “

Knowing that he had to act quickly, Gianna, who was wearing tank top, sweatshirt and jeans at the time, began to swim to the extreme posture, thinking that the currents and conditions would soon deteriorate.

“They say I swam a long way, but I didn’t really think about it,” Kiana told the newspaper. “I’m sad that my sister and dad left, but I think it’s the right thing to do.”

After swimming about 1,800 feet into the shore, Kiana said she was stripped of her jeans, sweatshirt and tank top because she was “too cold” to shout for help.

Kiana’s crying caught the attention of a duty sports warden’s wife, who told her husband she heard some screaming noise for help. It sent Chris McCabe and his neighbor, Don West, to action, and the couple soon found themselves on the teenage coast, The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife said Maine.

“Kris found Giana in the middle of the lake about 1800 feet from Ray Levesque, another camp owner who assisted and stopped Chris Giana on Don West’s boat,” department officials said.

Rescue crews soon found Gary French, 40, and his 14-year-old daughter drowning, suffering from hypothermia. French and her daughters were later examined by paramedics, but no further treatment was needed, authorities said.

All three wore life jackets after their boat sank, but only Gianna was able to swim to the shore, where she took off her clothes to heat up and move fast, Wildlife officials say, once seen on a reality TV show. .

McCann’s wife said she had seen the variation of her skin as she ran along the rocky shores of the dense jungle of Gianna.

Gianna’s grandmother, Alicia Blodgett, said she hoped that “someone was watching” throughout the ordeal that threatened Gianna, Sierra and their father.

“Also, the wardens and those on the shore, I can’t thank them enough because they really helped them,” Plodgett told the Morning Sentinel. “They are very good people,” he said. “