SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – A summery day on a Utah lake turned deadly for a family and friends when high waves and violent winds kicked up and capsized their boat, throwing all seven people into the cold water.
Four died, including three children, as rescuers struggled to find the boaters for at least two hours in continued bad weather. The other three eventually were pulled from the choppy waters and hospitalized.
It happened Monday at Bear Lake, which spans more than 112 square miles in Utah and Idaho.
Utah doctor Lance Capener, 46, took the ski boat out with his wife, Kathy, 42, their two daughters and three of the girls’ friends, authorities said. It was 80 degrees.
The group was reported missing at about 6 p.m., around the same time temperatures dropped and the National Weather Service tracked wind gusts of up to 51 mph in nearby Garden City. The windstorm that rolled in over nearby mountains produced giant waves that also ripped to pieces a floating plastic dock at a nearby Boy Scout camp.