Saints at the River

There are many tragic events that occur everyday throughout the world. One such tragedy was the accidental drowning of a young who was vacationing with her family in South Carolina.

In both stories, a plan to use portable dams to retrieve the body is implemented. These dams fail because of the rapid flow rate at which the water moves. Even though rescuers drill holes in the bedrock to support the dams, the force of the water destroys these supports. Divers were sent into the river to see if they could discover exactly where the body was lodged and how to get the girl out of the river. Political pressure and clout also played an important role in both accounts. Governors, senators, government agencies, and people that lived in the area where the accident occurred were pitted against each other in the attempt to determine how to retrieve the drowning victim. In the book Saints at the River, dynamite was used in order to recover the bodies of the rescuer and the girl. In the actual account, nobody was hurt in the rescue attempt. They only manage to recover a few bones during the actual rescue while the book characters manage to recover the entire waterlogged body. The book’s version of the recovery efforts show divers using scuba equipment in their attempts to locate the body. While in the actual search, various items of technology such as underwater cameras and 3D imaging were employed to assist searchers in locating the body. The dams where designed differently as well. The dam in the book was designed to force the flow of water into another fork in the river whereas the dam that was actually used was intended to divert the water around the dam creating a shallow area where searchers could look for the body. I believe the factual story is much better because it does not a have a side story. I prefer to read a story that does not include fictional romances and drama. I believe the novelist changed the story line because he is writing to entertain his