During the 38th-annual Mississippi Valley Trade and Transport Conference held in New Orleans in February, Cooper Consolidated’s Port Manager Kenny Burnsed assisted with a rescue on the raging Mississippi River.

While touring Coastal Cargo’s Louisiana Avenue terminal with Karen Conroy, Regional Sales Manager, Cooper Consolidated; Cy Hill, Vice President, Sales, Coastal Cargo; and Cliff Mosby, Operations Manager, Cooper Consolidated; Hill spotted a man being swept downriver, struggling to stay afloat.

As Hill rushed away to find help and a life ring, Burnsed instructed the man to swim to one of the nearby dock pillars. Fortunately, he managed to grab hold of a pillar. Unfortunately, due to its large diameter and the strong current, the man struggled to keep his grip.

Multiple pillars are tasked with supporting this dock and atop each is a metal support bracket -- brackets that are just small enough to get a hand around. Burnsed directed the man to reach for his pillar’s bracket. Luckily, due to high river, the bracket was only about two to three feet above him.

Fighting the current, the man climbed just far enough up his pillar to reach the bracket and hold on. This leverage and higher positioning made it possible for Burnsed to reach down from the dock and pull the man up to safety. With water temperatures around 45 degrees, the man was shivering and dazed.

“The first thing he did was take a knee and start praying,” Burnsed said. “I’m not much of a praying type, but I gave him an ‘Amen’ at the end of his prayer. He needed it.”

Hill returned to the scene with a life ring and a support team of Coastal Cargo employees. They questioned the man about who he was and how he fell in, but he didn’t make much sense. He claimed to have been “walking along a ledge, fell into the river, and had been drifting for a while.” Hill and Burnsed posited that a combination of shock and possible hypothermia had made him loopy.

Afterward, the man was escorted to the front office where New Orleans Harbor Police was waiting to assist. According to them, the man was likely a member of the local homeless population. Harbor Police believes they’ve had previous incidents with the man. When recounting the incident, Burnsed and Conroy referred to him as a “frequent floater.”

“I’m glad we were able to help this guy out when we did,” Burnsed said. “Had we driven by a minute or two later or gone back through the warehouses, we might have been hearing about him on the news.”

Burnsed credits on-the-job training for his swift action. “Throughout my career on the river we were trained on what to do in an emergency,” he said. “Sometimes it’s by the book, and sometimes it’s improvised. But the truth is, the experience gained from the operations side of this business helps keep you prepared for this type of incident. When you’re prepared, it helps you stay calm, assess the situation, and make better decisions.”