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One Stanly County official said a water rescue Friday afternoon could have been much worse.

“Kayakers on guided tour got out of their kayaks to walk on the rocks at the spillway for Narrows Dam (Badin Dam) when the dam horn sounded to alert boaters about the floodgates opening and they were caught up in rising waters,” Stanly County Fire Marshal Danny Barham said by email. “Stanly Rescue, along with another boat, assisted them in getting safely out of the area. [They] should not have been that close to the dam.”