Citizens rescue eight in storm
PRIEST LAKE — A Priest Lake woman and a Priest Lake Ambulance volunteer are credited with saving eight people after their boat capsized off West Twin Island during a windstorm on Thursday.
The Boston Whaler was swamped by waves and overturned, leaving the three generations of a Washington state family clinging to its hull.
Kathy Zentz, who has a cabin overlooking the lake, saw the family struggling and went out in her own boat to try to rescue them, according to a Bonner County EMS news release. However, Zentz was unable to safely get close to the stricken boat because of the rough water. Zentz was able to rescue a 17-year-old boy who had drifted from the overturned boat and took him to shore.
There is no cellular service in that area, but Zentz managed to raise Priest Lake Marina Manager Ed Sprinkle via marine radio to report the incident. Sprinkle alerted Bonner County sheriff’s officials, but its marine vessel was in Priest River. When the crew reached Priest Lake, it reported that it would take at least an hour to reach the Twin Islands due to extreme conditions on the lake, Bonner EMS said.
Meanwhile, Priest Lake Ambulance volunteer Zach Cannizzaro happened to be in the area in his boat, heard the distress call over the radio and went to rescue the seven others.
He took them aboard his boat and delivered them to Grandview Resort to rendezvous with two Priest Lake ambulances. Once it was discovered that the 17-year-old was still unaccounted for, Priest Lake Ambulance contacted Zentz via radio in order to reunite the family.
“All eight patients were treated for cold exposure and transported to their cabin on Reeder Bay — where they found their power was out due to the windstorm,” Bonner County EMS spokesman Bob Abbott said in the news release.
Rescued were a 67-year-old woman, a 66-year-old man, a 53-year-old man, a 44-year-old female, a 17-year-old male, a 14-year-old girl, a 10-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl.
“The Bonner County Board of Commissioners would like to thank and congratulate everyone involved in this incredible rescue,” Chairman Cary Kelly said Monday. “They risked their own safety in extreme conditions to help strangers and I don’t think there’s any doubt that without their selfless acts, an entire family could have been lost. They represent the very best of us.”
Gil Tumey, president of Priest Lake Ambulance, said the outcome was remarkably fortuitous.
“There were a lot of elements in this thing that could have gone way wrong that didn’t. Everything just went right,” Tumey said.
Tumey said Bonner Dispatch put out the distress alert via a Priest Lake repeater site. Had the alert been put out on a different repeater site, Priest Lake Ambulance and Cannizzaro would not have heard it, Tumey said.
“We would not have known that the boat was capsized, that there were people hanging onto it,” said Tumey. “Chances are we wouldn’t have gotten to them in time.”
In light of a recent fatal boating collision on Lake Coeur d’Alene, a deadly water skiing accident on Priest and a drowning in Lake Pend Oreille, Tumey said the outcome was a nice change of pace.
“This one turned out good,” he said. “This one was a success story.”