A man in a kayak went over Willamette Falls about 11 p.m. Saturday and did not resurface, the Clackamas County Sheriff’s office said Sunday.
Multiple people called 911 to report seeing a kayaker in distress on the Willamette River at Oregon City just above Willamette Falls at 11:52 p.m. Saturday.
Witnesses said the man went over the 42-foot falls and did not resurface. Willamette Falls, 1,500 feet wide, is the second largest waterfall in the U.S. by volume, after Niagara Falls.
The man was in a blue hard-shell kayak. The sheriff’s office did not release his name.
Despite a massive late-night search effort, including help from a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter and a fixed-wing aircraft from the Portland Police Bureau, no sign of the man was found.
The search efforts would restart Sunday, the sheriff’s office said.
Willamette Falls is 26 river miles from the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers.
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