Hannah Salinas said she didn’t think before leaping.
It didn’t matter that the Vancouver teen was standing about 15 feet above the water at the Camas Potholes, an area near Round Lake known as a place where accidents and even fatalities are not uncommon. It didn’t matter that she might get hurt. At that moment, all Salinas, 17, and her friends, Hillary Darland, 18, and Maddy Gregory, 17, knew was that they had to help.
The teens had seen a man and little girl swimming near the base of the waterfalls. The girl started to struggle, they said, and the man seemed to be going to her rescue.
“The guy came over to get her, but then the current got him, too,” Salinas said.
When both the man and little girl disappeared beneath the water, the three teens sprung into action.
“I didn’t think about it too much,” Salinas said. “No one was doing anything and (I thought), ‘Someone needs to do something, or they’re going to drown.’ It was just instinct.”