Local man missing on Snoqualmie River

A 36-year-old Kirkland man who went missing on the Snoqualmie River last week is presumed drowned.

A 36-year-old Kirkland man who went missing on the Snoqualmie River last week is presumed drowned.

On the river for an inner-tubing trip with three friends, the man fell off his tube and could not climb back on, said Sgt. John Urquhart of the King County Sheriff’s Department. The man was last seen in the river around 5:50 p.m. on June 30.

The man’s name was not released and will not be until he is found alive or a body is discovered.

The four friends were in the river south of Snoqualmie Falls when the incident occurred. The area downstream from where the man was last seen was searched until dark by the Sheriff’s Office Marine Diver’s Swift Water Rescue Unit and Eastside Fire Swift Water Rescue.

According to Urquhart, neither the missing man nor his friends wore life jackets or any kind of thermal protection gear. This lack of proper equipment contributed to the incident, Urquhart said. A search team will be sent out to look for a body when the river recedes.

Nearly all of Western Washington’s rivers are running very high, very fast and very cold, Urquhart said, making venturing out in any river, including the Snoqualmie, “exceedingly dangerous.”