A “loud, thunderous noise” was all Christopher Palumbo heard before the water started rushing down Albion Falls toward him and his five buddies Monday afternoon.The 19-year-old Vaughan man road tripped to Hamilton on the long weekend to hike the trails and shoot some photos of the falls, but a quick turn in the weather changed those plans.Thunder and rain prompted the group to take cover under a rock ledge, and that’s when the water came.“We heard a loud, thunderous noise, and we all looked up and saw that all the water had started rushing down the waterfall,” he said. “It was like this water had come out of nowhere.”At first, they were amazed by the beauty and power of the flow, he said.“Then we realize, this thing’s coming right towards us.”The friends picked up their gear and fled downstream. The flooding started, and people got split up from one another and stuck on cliff sides, he said.He and his friends managed to cross the water and get to high ground but then he got stuck. While looking for ways to get back on the trail and find his way out of the falls, he ran into a couple of people stuck on the same side as him.“We all kind of stayed together just to figure out how we were going to get across,” he said. “Some people were from out of the province, so they were really unfamiliar with the area.“They had no idea what they were walking into.”About 30 people were down at the base of the falls when the water started rushing, Palumbo noted, including a man who got stuck in the water as it was flowing.Palumbo said the man managed to hold on to his dog despite getting washed down shore.With the help of emergency personnel, Palumbo was walked to safety. Neither he nor his friends suffered any injuries, he said.Immediately after the misadventure during his first visit to Albion Falls, Palumbo said he was shocked. But a few hours later, that initial panic had a ...
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