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Dispatcher calls mom to save boater

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CATHLAMET, Wash., April 2 (UPI) -- A Washington state 911 dispatcher said she called on her mother to rescue a stranded boater because the woman was closer than responders to the emergency scene.

Raedyn Grasseth, a 911 dispatcher and spokeswoman for the Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office, said she received a call Sunday afternoon from a 45-year-old woman who said she had become stranded on a piling in the Columbia River near a jetty at the mouth of Birnie Slough, The (Longview, Wash.) Daily News reported Tuesday.

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Grasseth said she alerted the sheriff's office to the plight of the woman, whose kayak had sunk and whose companion had left the area to seek help.

The dispatcher said it then occurred to her to alert her own family, as they live in the area and operate boats.

"I knew they could be there within 5 to 10 minutes," Grasseth said.

Grasseth's mother, Cindy Faubion, an avid kayaker, and other family members quickly reached the stranded woman with a kayak and a skiff.

Grasseth said the woman was cold and shaken, but did not require medical care.

"She's lucky she's alive, plain and simple," Grasseth said.

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