At Least 4 Boats Sink During ‘Trump Boat Parade’ in Texas, Officials Say
The authorities rescued quite a few folks from the waters of Lake Travis in Texas on Saturday after not less than 4 boats sank at an occasion promoted as a Trump Boat Parade, officers mentioned.
The Sheriff’s Office in Travis County acquired “multiple” calls of boats in misery beginning at 12:15 p.m. native time, a spokeswoman, Kristen Dark, mentioned.
Christa Stedman, a spokeswoman for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, mentioned no accidents had been reported.
Firefighters pulled “numerous” folks out of the water, mentioned Braden Frame, president of the Lake Travis Fire Fighters Association. It was not clear what number of had wanted rescuing, he mentioned.
The variety of boats collaborating in the gathering was not instantly clear. Ms. Dark mentioned there have been “too many variables” to say for positive what precisely occurred.
“We had an exceptional number of boats on the lake today,” she mentioned. “When they all started moving at the same time, it generated significant waves.”
With winds round 10 miles an hour, and gusting to as a lot as 15 m.p.h., the climate circumstances in and across the lake most probably wouldn’t have triggered the boats to sink, Aaron Treadway, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Austin/San Antonio workplace, mentioned.
Mr. Frame praised the work of emergency responders, noting that the rescuers had confronted “significant challenges due to the amount of waves and chop on the water today.”
“We train for water rescues regularly, but this is the first multi-vessel, multi-incident water rescue that we’ve responded to not precipitated by a collision,” he mentioned.
Steve Salinas, 42, mentioned that the water had been uneven and the swells had been excessive when he went to launch his 22-foot boat, adorned with eight-foot-tall flagpoles.
Mr. Salinas, who helped arrange the occasion, which was referred to as the Lake Travis Trump Boat Parade and was organized on Facebook, said the boat parade was “one way that Trump supporters can get out and express themselves without causing too much trouble or congestion in streets.”
Mr. Salinas said he had seen boats of all sizes Saturday — from 60-foot yachts to eight-foot boats. Mixed with the number of boats headed in the same direction, their various sizes and the choppy water, Mr. Salinas said, accidents were bound to happen.
“You can have really great water one second, and it could get some pretty heavy swells in a matter of minutes,” he said. “Once boats get on a lake, mother nature has its own plans.”
Boaters were set to travel around the lake, which is about 15 miles northwest of Austin, at 10 miles per hour, according to the event’s page.
Other boat parades to display support for President Trump have taken place this summer.
In Oregon, a boat sank after it was swamped by waves from a passing boat parade, The Oregonian reported. The people on the boat, which was not involved in the parade, were not injured.
Another parade, the Nation’s Capital Trumptilla Boat Parade and Rally, is planned for Sunday on the Potomac River.
Christina Morales contributed reporting.
