Windstorm wreaks havoc at lake, leaving more than a dozen stranded, CO rescuers say
A violent windstorm tore across a popular Colorado lake over Memorial Day weekend, leaving dozens of boaters stranded, rescuers said.
While rescuers were helping a kayaker whose boat was capsized in the frigid water of the Dillon Reservoir, they got another call about a pontoon boat with 13 people on board that was being blown onto “the rocky shore” of the lake’s Snake River Arm, according to the Summit County Sheriff’s Office.
So rescuers split up. A team from the Dillon Marina helped the “hypothermic kayaker” out of the water and set him up to go to a local hospital, officials said.
The sheriff’s ranger helped the pontoon boat, which had beached on rocks beneath the Summerwood neighborhood, officials said. All 13 people on board were safe.
That’s when the sheriff’s ranger spotted an empty canoe in the water, officials said.
The ranger found a man and woman in the water about a quarter mile away from where the boat capsized in Heaton Bay 30 minutes prior, officials said. They had been in the water since and were hypothermic.
Rescuers treated them on the rescue boat, officials said. Then they were taken to the Frisco Marina to take warm showers and change clothes.
Life jackets were “crucial” to everyone’s survival in the catastrophic windstorm — during the first weekend of the sheriff’s office operations on the lake this year, officials said.
Sheriff Jaime FitzSimons reminded the public about the dangers of frigid water and rapidly changing conditions on lakes like the reservoir. Life jackets are required on all boats and other watercraft in Colorado, including hand-powered ones like paddleboards.
Officials also recommend wearing a leash when paddleboarding on flat water.
“High alpine lakes, like Dillon Reservoir, are extremely dangerous,” he said. “Even exceptionally strong swimmers can find their muscles seize when falling into 43-degree water. Without a (personal flotation device), drowning is likely; we see it every year.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 7:24 AM with the headline "Windstorm wreaks havoc at lake, leaving more than a dozen stranded, CO rescuers say."
