Whitewater rafting businesses struggle in drought

COLOMA, Calif. (KABC) -- A record drought in California has forced many rafting companies to shut down early during what's usually their busiest time of the year.

For Whitewater Excitement, a rafting company that operates at the American River near Sacramento, scheduled dam releases have kept them afloat this summer. Rafting continues five days a week.

Even so, the owner of the rafting company said his bookings are down about 25 percent due to public perception.

"We hear from a lot of people when they call our office for reservations. 'Is there going to be enough water to raft this year? Is there going to be any water to raft this year?' We have a lot of water up here to raft," owner Norm Schoenhoff said.

But other California rivers that don't have regular dam releases are not as lucky. Popular recreation rivers like in Truckee, Merced and Kern have all shut down whitewater rafting for the season.

It's caused an economic hardship for areas that rely on the normally busy summer rafting season. Many laid off river guides and adventure seekers are going out of state for their whitewater fix.

"It seemed actually that the entire country got a lot of water except for California. So a lot of them went to Colorado, Oregon, Idaho," said Luther Stephens with Whitewater Voyages.

Back on the American River, trips will be reduced to just twice a week starting in September.

"We're all praying and hoping we have a good year next year and we get a good snowpack and it fills up the reservoirs," Schoenhoff said.