Deb Chamberlin, 52, of Rockford, vice president of the school board in the west Michigan community.
Posted on 06/18/2006 11:34:26 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside
Today: June 18, 2006 at 9:1:6 PDT
Yellowstone Tourist Dies in 500-Foot Fall
ASSOCIATED PRESS
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) - A woman lost her footing after stepping over a retaining wall to take a photograph and went over a cliff, falling 500 feet to her death in a canyon, park officials said.
The 52-year-old woman was visiting the park with her husband and two children.
Her husband flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911 after the Saturday morning accident at an overlook along the Yellowstone River, park officials said.
A ranger rappelled down the canyon wall to reach the woman, but she was dead at the scene.
In Michigan, The Grand Rapids Press on Sunday identified the woman as Deb Chamberlin, 52, of Rockford, vice president of the school board in the west Michigan community.
"It's hard for me to articulate right now because I'm still in shock," said Rockford Superintendent Mike Shibler, who said he spoke to Chamberlin's husband, Gary.
It was the second fatal accident in Yellowstone this year. In February, a woman was killed in a snowmobile accident.
It wasn't the fall that killed her, it was the sudden stop at the end.
She probably couldn't see the cliff from her vantage point on top. You don't get a sense of vertigo and so she probably didn't think it was that dangerous. But once you're on that embankment, there's no guarantee you can stop your slide toward the edge... **shiver** ... Poor lady.
Makes me glad my brother is fat and bald. : )
Thanks for posting. Reminds me I sould be outside riding.
Back later.
Deb Chamberlin, 52, of Rockford, vice president of the school board in the west Michigan community.
So she climbs over a retaining wall above a canyon to get a better picture and neither she, the husband or the kids thinks "maybe that's a not very good idea"?
There are several well visited places in Yellowstone whre this might have happened...and as sorry as I am for the family, the question is why did she do something like that?
Me, I have a healthy fear of edges. Maybe too healthy, my husband might think (as there are some mountain roads I could only be driven across if blindfolded!) Gravity isn't a suggestion. Some truths aren't really that relative. You lose your balance at the edge of a cliff, you will fall and get injured or die.
I would be surprised if there isn't a lawsuit, since everybody in our culture seems to think there has to be someone to blame when we act stupid, but the truth is some places are dangerous. Lots of places in Yellowstone are. There are places near Old Faithful that are extremely hazardous if you get off the paths. There are wild animals who will hurt you if you don't pay attention to their unease, but there are picture takers who get badly injured or killed quite regularly there by getting too close or agitating the animals. If they live, they will get a ticket for harrassing them, too.
Are we so in tune to our reality being an extension of video games and TV that we don't realize that hazards are really hazardous?
Uh, hello, it is a CA-LIFF with a 500 foot drop!!!
Why file the lawsuit against Yellowstone? Why not file against God--oops, President Bush--who created the geologic formation known as a cliff and the physical force of gravity, just as he created marshes, rivers, oceans, hurricanes, and water itself?
How sad...
Testimonial
My husband and I believe that
our little daughter is a miracle
from God through the prayer and
favors of Blessed Mary Angela.
For six years we tried to have
a child. I was 42 years old when
Kelly ANGELA was born. The
doctor told me that I had a 22%
chance of getting pregnant with
the intense medical treatment
called G.I.F.T. If I did get preg-
nant, there would only be a 20%
chance of being able to keep the
child because miscarriages are a
high risk.
I delivered a healthy 6 lbs., 6
oz. baby girl which I named
Kelly Angela in honor of Blessed
Mary Angela because I believe
that it was through her interces-
sion that my prayers were an-
swered. I carried Blessed
Angela’s relic with me to surgery
and my family and the sisters
prayed for the baby.
To this date no one over 40
years of age has ever been suc-
cessful with the procedure and
the doctor claims me “his
miracle patient.” He cannot ex-
plain how I was able to become
pregnant and deliver a healthy
baby.
Kelly Angela is now a healthy,
happy 2 1/2 years old and our
little miracle for whom we thank
the Lord every day. I know it was
Blessed Mary Angela who heard
my prayers and obtained the
graces for me.
Deborah L. Chamberlin
Rockford, MI
On a long ago trip to the Grand Canyon, I was appalled at the number of people who disregarded posted signs and stood in places they shouldn't, taking pictures.
Just because people have brains, doesn't mean they use them.
Yep, every so often so Yahoo is swept over Yosemite Falls. " Hey, I'm going to stand next to the edge of the falls, get my picture."
Consider this info ...
There is no accurate measurement made of water flow, but hydrologists have estimated that average spring flows are 300 cubic feet per second, or 2,400 gallons per second. That's a lot of water.
..but use caution as you approach the lip of the falls. The rocks are unusually smooth and slippery due to millenia of water-polishing.
Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Mesa Verde, just a few of the spots I've visited. While they are beyond beautiful and so worth any time spent there, they are inherently dangerous places to be. I saw people step over the walls to creep forward to get "better pictures" of the Grand Canyon. I watched people get out of their cars and feed wild (though they appear tame) bears marshmallows by hand. I witnessed a group of people go tearing off across a meadow in Yellowstone toward a bull moose. They all had cameras in hand. He stood and watched them for a minute or two and then headed straight for them. It was a footrace back to their cars. Yellowstone is a strange, grand place full of boiling hot springs, bubbling and roiling mud flats, geysers and other assorted stuff just like that. Running across what appears to be open ground there, let alone right at large wildlife, is beyond stupid. Seen it, feel sorry for the rangers.
That's just one of the many ways people get themselves killed at Yellowstone. I grew up just a few miles from the park and during the summer our local paper was filled with such incidents. Tourists who ignored signs, fences and warnings were attacked by large wild animals (moose, deer, bear); they were boiled, scalded and disfigured from falling into hot water pools or boiling mud; they died from falls, like this poor woman; and there were plenty of drownings when boats capsized in sudden mountain squalls. Hikers often got lost and died from exposure. People do silly things and I've done a few myself. That's life.
I've seen this behavior with a friend of mine at the Grand Canyon. Some people just get too excited and put themselves in needless danger (he just HAD to look over the edge of a precipice even though the footing of the ground of was very unstable. Nothing happened thank God). They just get too excited. Maybe they didn't grow up close enough to Nature to know better. I don't know.
Was the marriage solid? I can see guys doing this, but a 52 year old woman?
There's no guard rail on the American Falls at Niagara Falls. Every now and then somebody hops in to see what happens.
She stepped over the retaining wall...as many others do...in order to obtain a better angle for a photograph. Pretty sad.
A woman who had successfully defied Nature in the past
may have felt she was somehow invincible against Nature's laws.
I agree. Personally, I think it's disgusting that people make jokes because of how someone died. We've all made stupid choices, but some of us were lucky enough to live to tell the tale. I also believe, on judgement day, we're all going to account for every single sillable ever uttered.
That poor family... having lost my mother at a young age, you just never really get over it. Prayers going up.
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