Three Rapid City teenagers were rescued from a raging Rapid Creek on Sunday evening after they got stranded on an island near the Pennington County Fairgrounds.

Rapid City Police believe the three teenage boys, ages 13, 14, and 16, saw the rain and the rising creek and decided to see if they could get across to the island near the intersection of Centre and La Crosse streets, Sgt. Wayne Asscherick said.

They made it, but when a downpour started, they tried to get back to the other side.

Two of the teens entered the water, Asscherick said, but the current was too strong, and they started to struggle. One made it back to the island; the other, a 13-year-old boy, clung to a branch.

A witness saw the 13-year-old in the water and tried to help before calling police a little before 6:15 p.m.

Upon reaching the scene, Rapid City firefighters were able to throw a rope to the teen and swing him back to shore, Asscherick said.

But it took about 30 minutes before rescue crews were able to locate the other two boys stranded on the island. Crews had fanned out at bridges and drop-in points all along Rapid Creek, as far down as South Valley Drive.

"We got lucky that they were still on the island and didn't get swept downstream," Asscherick said.

After briefly being swept up in the current themselves, members of the Rapid City/Pennington County Dive Rescue Team set up a tow line across the creek, in the direction of the current.

Once it was secure, the two boys were harnessed and clipped to the rope, walking along the creek bed until the current pushed them down the rope to the shore.

Both of the stranded boys had been rescued by shortly after 8 p.m.

"They seem to be checking out alright," Asscherick said of the boys' condition after the rescue. "Thank God it wasn't too cold out here."

The police department, fire department, Pennington County Search & Rescue and the dive team assisted in the two-hour rescue.

Flash flooding had been reported around Rapid City on Sunday after heavy downpours pounded the area.

The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning for the Black Hills area between Butte County at the north and Fall River County, and from Crook and Weston counties in Wyoming through eastern Pennington County.

Contact Emilie Rusch at 394-8453 or emilie.rusch@rapidcityjournal.com.