Crane operator Joe Lowe and general laborer Jason Oglesbee saved a woman from drowning in the Des Moines River on June 30 after current pulled a boat over a low-head dam. A crew from Cramer & Associates Inc., Grimes, Iowa, constructing a steel-arch pedestrian bridge just upstream of the dam, leapt into action when rescuers could not reach Patricia Ralph-Neely, 67, who was trapped in the swirling boil for about 25 minutes. Her husband, Alan, 62, drowned.
When the construction workers realized rescue boats could not get through the boil and Mrs. Ralph-Neely was showing signs of hypothermia and unable to hold ropes thrown to her, they cleared a path for their American 7260 crawler crane to bring it within reach on the east bank. Oglesbee hooked on and Lowe flew him in to pull Mrs. Ralph-Neely to safety.