Hiker saves girl before being swept away by rushing water

MILLERTON LAKE, California -- A California teenager is missing, swept away by fast-moving water while hiking in the San Joaquin River Gorge area.

Jared Gardner, 18, and six friends were hiking the canyon and stopped to rest just below a footbridge near the Kerckhoff power plant when a surge of water released upstream from the Kerckhoff Dam hit.

Jianna Vang says she was swept away with Jared and another girl.

"It was so fast and it came out of nowhere and the waves were just pushing us between the rocks," she said.

Jianna was pushed several hundred feet down the river channel but managed to get out. She saw Jared push another girl to safety, then watched him disappear.

"The last thing he did was save her, and then the last thing I saw was him going down the river in front of us," she said.

Search and rescue crews have been looking for any sign of the missing teen.

"Jared was actually able to get one of the girls to the shore before he was carried down river," Jared's uncle, John Foster, told KPGE-TV. "That's who he is."

There are warning signs about the danger of rising water, but no alarms or sirens are in place.