River safety efforts are heating up, along with the weather. And just ahead of another busy weekend, members of the South Yuba River Safety Cohort delivered their annual message at the popular Highway 49 crossing, north of Nevada City. With cold and roaring high flows, from a still-heavy snowmelt, as a backdrop, California State Parks Chief Ranger Dan Youngren reminded would-be swimmers to stay out. And he also mentioned that if you get in distress, you’ll likely have to wait a while for rescue crews…

click to listen to Dan Youngren

Nevada County Consolidated Fire Operations Chief Pat Sullivan noted that they’ve already had one drowning near Bridgeport. He said the river is still flowing at around five-thousand cubic feet per second, compared to a more typical 100 feet during the summer…

click to listen to Pat Sullivan

The Cohort will also be distributing life-saving information before Memorial Day weekend, which is next weekend. The South Yuba River now has over 700-thousand visitors a year.