What Would Happen If You Fell Down the Waterfall

so there you are standing on the observation deck near a massive waterfall the wind ruffling your hair the roaring water blocking out all sounds and one thought enters your mind what would happen if i fell in would it be like diving only with some extra time to do backflips along the way well no need to imagine it's happened before one of the most shocking incidents was at niagara falls the largest of its kind in north america it's actually made up of three separate ones the biggest being horseshoe falls the colossal u-shaped cascade is 167 feet tall it's like standing on the 15th floor of a skyscraper high enough to make you a little dizzy but it's relatively short for a waterfall the world's tallest ones can be from 10 to even 20 times that height but that doesn't make it any safer to fall into niagara has some of the fastest waterfalls in the world 6 million cubic feet of water enough to fill 70 olympic sized swimming pools rushing down every minute and if you're at the bottom that's seven times the weight of the statue of liberty falling on your head yet people have survived that it was on a saturday afternoon in 1960 a teen and her younger brother went on a boat trip in the upper niagara river in the middle of their voyage the boat got caught in a fast current and hit an underwater ridge it capsized and the siblings were thrown into the rapids the boy who was only wearing his swimsuit and a life jacket went over horseshoe falls his sister was still in the river but only seven yards from the edge she was rapidly being swept toward it many people were standing at the brink of the falls witnessing all of this but nobody knew how to help that's when two men rushed to the rail and climbed over it one of them stretched out his arm and the girl managed to grab his thumb right before going over the edge the other man grabbed them and helped pull her out of the water once on dry land the girl shaken and terrified asked what happened to her brother the look on the men's faces said it all the boy plummeted to the bottom of the falls and disappeared into the mist cruising over to the scene the captain of the mate of the mist tour boat spotted a bright orange life jacket in the water they approached the boy and the crew pulled him out alive and conscious the girl walked away with a cut hand and her brother had a slight concussion thirty years later that boy now a man of course came back to niagara falls and described what it felt like falling over them he said being thrown against the water and rocks felt like getting a heavy beating from all sides i'll bet this incident was dubbed the niagara miracle it was the first time someone survived the fall being totally unprotected before that in 1901 a woman went down the waterfall in a barrel to perform a stunt she survived as well but swore she'd never do it again even for a million bucks experts agree that a person must be incredibly lucky to survive such a fall don't imagine it like a fun water pox slide there are dangers the whole way down so let's take a hypothetical tumble together first you'll experience free fall accumulating speed with every second even if you drop from a relatively short waterfall like niagara you'll reach highway speeds within three seconds but what if it's say angel falls in venezuela it's the world's tallest uninterrupted waterfall at a height of 3212 feet taller than the empire state building the eiffel tower big bend the statue of liberty and the leaning tower of pisa combined the free fall from there would last about 20 seconds and you'd reach a speed of 120 miles an hour along the way you could encounter jagged rock ledges but even without those the beating from the water alone would be no joke ever stuck your hand out the window of a moving car on a rainy day water plus high speeds equals not good and those were teeny tiny ring drops not millions of gallons so gravity is zooming you down to the bottom you're taking a beating from massive amounts of h2o when you finally get to the only exit available that'll take mere seconds so forget about doing any acrobatics you'd plunge under the water and deep too because of that speed better hope the body of water below is also deep otherwise you risk crashing into underwater rocks down here the sunlight gets blocked so everything around is black you can't see a thing that and since you're being pulled and pushed by so much water you get totally disoriented you can't tell which way is up so good luck knowing which way to swim out of this thing your best chances are that you'll somehow float to the surface and you do you burst from the surface and take in a deep breath of fresh air but you're not out of the woods yet if you got injured from the water's beating or a crash with a rock you'll likely have some injuries but you still need to swim away from the falls which of course gets much harder if you can barely move your arms or legs the water's temperature can also make that impossible sudden entry into extremely cold water has been known to stop people's hearts you can't just chill there pardon the pun until you feel better you'll have only 15 minutes to get out of the freezing cold water up to 30 if it's 40 degrees or warmer before you lose consciousness from the cold but they say that in critical situations people can move cars right even with broken ribs or a dislocated shoulder you make one last attempt and finally manage to get out of there you're safe until you can get to a doctor but we'll assume there were witnesses who already called for help if by some unlucky chance you ever find yourself in this situation survival experts do have some tips when it comes to tumbling over a waterfall if you're about to go over and there's nothing you can do to stop it try to jump from the edge it could help you avoid rocks below the falls you'll also gain some distance from the rushing water early on so you won't be right under it getting pounded from above take a deep breath before going over this will help you float up later fall feet first you'll be less likely to hit your head on something below don't flail your limbs tighten your muscles wrap your arms around your head and put your nose in the crook of your elbow protecting your head is key as you approach the water close your eyes tightly and press your legs together with all your mind getting all this immediately swim downstream even before breaking the surface you'll want to get away from the falls as fast and as far as possible they'll try to pull you in and keep you under remember all that good and i hope you never need to use this

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 141,540

Rating: 4.9019608 out of 5

Keywords: bright side, brightside, bright side videos, based on true stories, touching stories, amazing stories, survival stories, survival stories documentary, survival stories bright side, best survival stories, falling off Niagara, niagara falls, niagara accident, surviving Niagara falls, tumbling over a waterfall, survival tips, survival tricks, Niagara falls plunge, critical situations tips, dangerous situations tips

Id: EYJdvlCkljI

Length: 7min 8sec (428 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 10 2020