Death & Taxes: The costs of tragedy

AFD divers examine the overturned canoe on Sand Lake

July 6, 2009: At first glance it had all the makings of a Hollywood movie set.

Police and fire trucks dotted the green lawn with the sound of crackling radios barking out updates between emergency responders. A large fire truck was positioned on the edge of a lake with its telescopic flood lights extended to the sky, lighting up the area like it was Fenway Park during a night game.

On the shore line stood a handful of emergency responders looking out over the horizon as rescue boats slowly cut a path through the morning fog with divers positioned on the sides ready to enter the water at a moments notice.

A television reporter stood nearby, interviewing police and fire department captains. Meanwhile, a short distance away stood a survivor, wrapped in a white blanket, surrounded by grieving family members and a fire department chaplain.

But this was no Hollywood movie set, it was my front yard on Sand Lake and it was 3am on June 10.  

For two days, fire and police vehicles were fixtures in my front yard, as the search for a missing canoeist continued. Family members gathered outside my front window, watching and waiting as they held hands, cried and prayed.

On Thursday June 11, the body of 26 year old Kody Kenneth King was found at the 40 foot level of Sand Lake. A fire department rescue diver told me that the water temperature at the bottom of the lake was some of the coldest he'd ever encountered after seven years on the dive squad.

Afterwards, as I stood on the same patch of ground I've spent years playing with my dogs and wiffle ball with my daughters, nieices and nephews, I tried to make sense of it all. I couldn't help but think how quickly the landscape had been transformed from a place of carefree enjoyment to a place of fatal consequences and significant sorrow.

This stories tragic backdrop is a common one here in Alaska; booze plus boating without a life jacket equals death. 

When divers made it to the point where the canoe had tipped they found a debris field littered with beer cans.     

One APD officer on the scene told me that these kinds of tragedies are all to frequently due to an unfortunate combination of events. "Like a piece of Swiss cheese" he said, a number of holes lined up just right.

In this case, the costliest hole was when the two young men launched their canoe at the public access point, they walked right past a newly erected life jacket stand that offered boaters free personal flotations devices.

The Cost of Tragedy

While by far the biggest cost of this tragedy is the death of a young Alaskan, there are significant monetary costs.

Typically these costs go unnoticed until such time when the Chief of Police or the Fire Chief is standing in front of the local news media trying to explain why their departments have so much overtime. 

At one point during the early morning I counted two dozen emergency responders with millions of dollars of equipment and training at work. Over the next two days while the numbers of responders dropped, the costs were still adding up.

This is a perfect example of why public safety departments are frequently over budget. They don't have the luxury of controlling the calls they have to respond to and how long they must stay. Emergency responders stay until the job is don and in this case it took two days. 

The next time I see a public safety official trying to explain the additional cost to their operating budgets I'll remember the morning of June 10. 

Ten days later my wife and I attended King's memorial celebration. The church was packed with family and friends. Like many, I don't do funerals well, even for someone I've never met. To make matters worse I forgot to bring a Kleenex...or ten.

Watching the video eulogy of King's life told the story of a young man full of life and promise. In every video frame he appeared to be wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap. It seemed to be a source of comfort for him in life and it was incredibly prophetic in death.

According to rescue divers, when King's body was located at the bottom of Sand Lake he was found lying on his back, peacefully holding his baseball cap with both hands over his chest.

A tragedy. 

A senseless, costly tragedy in so many ways.