Rangers Carry Out Multiple Rescues During Severe Storm

Rangers made three nearly simultaneous rescues on Lake Powell on Memorial Day after an unusually powerful thunderstorm struck the Bullfrog Bay area in late afternoon with wind speeds of 50 to 60 miles per hour. At 4 p.m., Halls Crossing rangers Brian Yetter, Eric Herndon, and G. M. Yancey were notified of a woman with spinal injuries within the Halls Crossing buoy field. While responding to that call, they overheard a vessel with four women on board calling “Mayday” via marine band radio from buoy 101, reporting that they were out of gas and sinking. Yetter diverted the NPS vessel and responded immediately, During the ten minute trip to that buoy, the 25-foot Boston Whaler took large waves over its cabin. The sinking vessel was found within a 50-foot-wide cove bounded by 100-yard-high walls. Yetter was able to come alongside the 25-foot cabin boat while Herndon and Yancey secured the vessels and helped the women into the park boat as the two vessels continually crashed into each other. Following the rescue, the rangers determined that the park boat had taken on large amounts of water and decided to beach it at a safe location and wait out the storm. When the weather abated, a Coast Guard Auxiliary unit detailed to Lake Powell for holiday operations was able to pickup the women and transport them to Bullfrog Marina. While this rescue was underway, Bullfrog rangers Carmen Barnard and Moses Rinck launched a second park vessel to support Yetter and his crew.  While responding to buoy 101, Barnard and Rinck spotted a partially sunken ski boat with two people aboard and rescued them just as the ski boat went under. One of the two people was later treated for hypothermia. Following the wind event, Yetter and Herndon returned to the woman with the possible spinal injury. Following a thorough evaluation, she was transferred to the park’s fireboat, captained by supervisory ranger Steve Luckesen, a park medic, and transported to the Bullfrog clinic, where she was later evacuated by air. Patrols both up and down the lake revealed no additional storm victims.