Two missing after canoes go over Minnesota waterfall as harsh weather hinders search

Two people were rescued downstream from a small island on Sunday morning

Heavy rainfall has hampered the ongoing search for two canoeists missing for five days after their canoes were swept over a waterfall in Minnesota.

Four people in two canoes went over Curtain Falls waterfall in the Boundary Waters wilderness on Saturday, falling 30ft into the waters of Iron Lake below. The waterfall is located on the border between the US and Canada.

Two people were rescued downstream from a small island on Sunday morning and were airlifted by a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources helicopter.

Two men remain missing after the plunge. They were identified by authorities as Jesse Melvin Haugen, 41, and 40-year-old Reis Melvin Grams.

Curtain Falls, a waterfall on the border between the United States and Canada, swept away a group of canoeists on Saturday, with two people still unaccounted for (St Louis County Rescue Squad)

The two people rescued were identified as Kyle Thomas Sellers, 47, and 43-year-old Erik Michael Grams, brother of one the missing canoeists. Mr Sellers was injured from the fall, and was flown to hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries. A fifth person in the group, Jared Jay Lohse, 33, was on the shore at the time of the incident.

Angie Grams, wife of Mr Grams, one of the missing canoeists, told Fox9 that she is holding onto hope that her husband will be found.

“He is just a great, great man,” she said. “I need him home because the world needs him to be here longer.”

The search for the missing canoeists is proving difficult due to harsh weather and “rapid water conditions”.

On Tuesday, the St Louis County Rescue Squad wrote that their efforts have been “greatly curtailed” due to weather, and predicted that the water volume over Curtain Falls will double, raising levels in the river basin between 11 and 23 inches.

“Two teams worked the overnight until chased undercover by rain and winds,” they wrote. “They will remain spiked out in camp and hunkered down until this whopper storm passes.”

Cloud cover has hindered the use of aerial surveillance and around 2inches of rain is anticipated on Wednesday and Thursday, Nate Skelton, division commander with the St Louis County sheriff’s office, told the Star Tribune.

“Right now, we’re pretty much at a standstill,” Mr Skelton told MPR.

Rescue workers have remained camped at the scene with search efforts concentrated on the base of the falls, which flows into the Iron Lake.

The rescuers are hoping for a break in the harsh weather, as two more rescue personnel are waiting to be flown into the scene when it is safe to do so.

When they arrive, Mr Skelton told MPR that they would resume their search using remote-operated vehicles (ROVs), that they would use to search underwater using sonar and high-resolution cameras.

The missing men were part of a group who were familiar with the area.

The men were fishing above the falls when “something happened; one of them got in distress, the other one tried to give some assistance, and they both ended up going over the falls,” Mr Skelton told the outlet.