Sheriff's office responds to possible drowning at Kimtu Beach

A 9-1-1 call sent Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office emergency dispatchers, deputies and emergency medical personnel to Kimtu Beach in Willow Creek at about 4:17 p.m. on July 22 after a possible drowning was reported. The beach is one of the Trinity River’s better-known summer pullouts, where warm weather brings swimmers, families and visitors looking to cool off.

The sheriff’s office issued a public notice for a serious water emergency. Its visible excerpt did not include the final outcome. A later sheriff’s office update marked the Kimtu Beach death as the third Trinity River drowning within a week. The office had already issued a Trinity River Drownings Update on July 21 after two separate drowning incidents in the river within a couple of days.

Kimtu Beach sits in a part of the river where the surface can look calmer than the channel below. Currents can shift, deeper runs can form close to shore, submerged debris can snag swimmers, and uneven riverbeds can drop off without warning. Those conditions are not always obvious from the bank, especially when crowds spread out along the water during the hottest part of North Coast summer.

In 2021, a 22-year-old woman died after getting swept underwater by Trinity River currents at Kimtu Beach. That same year, an archived Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office drowning investigation warned about local rivers after the drowning death of an Arcata woman the week before.

Sheriff’s office guidance: watch children closely, do not drink alcohol while swimming, and never enter the water alone.