A 54-year-old Indianapolis man who was swept over a low-head dam in July credits his survival to “God, determination and a little bit of know-how.”

And that little bit of know-how came from the accompanying illustration, Warren Rosenthal said.

Mr. Rosenthal saw the illustration a few weeks before he and a friend, Lawrance Morrissey, 48, were swept over a dam while kayaking on the White River in Indianapolis on July 9. The pair had planned to get out of the water, walk their kayaks around the dam and get back in, but discovered too late that the water was too high to get out.

When he went over the dam, Mr. Rosenthal at first tried to keep his head above water. But then he remembered the illustration, which was originally published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on May 23, three days after two Pittsburgh women died when they were swept over a low-head dam on the Ohio River.

Caught in the boil, Mr. Rosenthal took off his life jacket. He was pushed to the bottom of the river and spit out of the boil -— an escape maneuver recommended by experts. 

Firefighters pulled him from the swollen river and he made a full recovery. Mr. Morrissey did not survive. Mr. Rosenthal now wants to raise awareness about the dangers of such dams, and how people can escape them.

“They’re just killing people,” he said. “I’m on a mission right now to see if I can get this to be more in the public eye.”

First Published: August 26, 2017, 1:40 a.m.