About Dawson County news. (Dawsonville, Georgia) 2015-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2019)
10A I DAWSON COUNTY NEWS I dawsonnews.com Wednesday, July 24,2019 Is Lake Lanier really a safe place to be? By Kelsey Richardson DCN Regional Staff Each year Lake Lanier collects more names on its list of drown- ings and boating fatalities. With 11.8 million visitors annu ally, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, Lanier holds the title of Georgia’s most popular lake. Population size factors into the deadly reputation of the lake that dominates other frequently visited lakes like Alatoona, Oconee and Sinclair when it comes to deaths. The Law Enforcement Division of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources keeps tabs on all of its major lakes, providing public access to the number of boating fatalities, drownings, boat ing incidents and boating under the influence cases. The department reported a total of 145 drownings and 57 boating fatalities at Lanier from 1999- 2018. Boating fatalities may include drownings, but only in connection with a moving boat. Lake Lanier had two boating fatalities in 2015, eight in 2016, two in 2017 and two in 2018. Seven drownings took place on Lanier in 2015, nine in 2016, five in 2017 and eight in 2018. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that Lake Allatoona, in northwest Georgia, hosts 7 million people annually. Lrom 2015-2018 Allatoona has accumulated a total of 16 lake-related deaths, com pared to Lanier’s 43. How locals and visitors feel about Lanier Richard Stever can trace his family’s Gainesville roots back to the 1800s. Over the 32 years he has spent visiting Lanier, Stever said he has never had family mem bers or friends die on the lake. However, this is not the case for the number of accidents he has witnessed. “Lor some reason this lake seems to claim a lot of people every year regardless of the sea son,” Stever said. “Lishermen have gotten hurt, boats have been cap sized.” Stever remembers one person in particular who got into a boating accident around 10 years ago. He said his friend was traveling on the lake at around 60 mph and crashed into a boat that didn’t have its lights on. “Nobody died or got hurt, but this was all because of poor prac tice in boating,” Stever said. Lrom 2015-2018, Georgia DNR reported a total of 128 boating inci dents. During the same span Allatoona had 66 boating inci dents, Oconee had 19 and Sinclair had 16. Both Lake Oconee and Sinclair don’t have visitor centers, making it difficult to track the amount of lake-goers. Jay Weems, Georgia Power’s land management specialist for Lake Sinclair, said he estimates that around 8,000 people live around Sinclair and 5,000 reside around Oconee. Hannah Wilcher, executive director of Visit Lake Oconee, said Oconee is the second largest lake next to 38,000-acre Lanier, cover ing 19,000 acres. While incidents do happen on Oconee, Wilcher said it’s not to the same scale as Lanier. “One thing that makes us differ ent from Lake Lanier is that we never feel overcrowded,” she said. “It does feel safer out here and there’s not a ton of boats backed up on the water.” During a typical week, Kim Martin, day camp director at Lake Lanier Canoe Kayak Club, can usually be found on the lake or near it. LCKC is located at the Lake Lanier Olympic Park on the north end of the lake near the mouth of the Chattahoochee River. When she married her husband 27 years ago, the two lived on a sail boat for a year at Aqualand Marina on Lanier. Martin has held water sports- related jobs, including working as the aquatics director of the University of North Georgia, for 47 years. Both of her children have served on LCKC’s national teams. She describes her time on Lanier as “magical and phenomenal.” “They’ve (club members) been racing and had some boats come in at high speeds, but for the most part, they feel safe here,” Martin said. “Most people are very consci entious and courteous out here on the lake.” Ben Barnes, who is training with the LCKC high performance team, spends three hours on the lake every day. He traveled from Wake Lorest University to undergo train ing for nationals during the sum mer. Before he visited the lake, Barnes said he had heard stories about the lives it claims every year. However, after a couple of months on Lanier, his worries went away. “Boats come through all the time, and I haven’t had an inci dent,” Barnes said. “I feel super safe on the lake, there’s nothing wrong with it. I haven’t seen any thing or witnessed anything.” If only they had a life jacket Life jackets might not be the most fashionable attire on the lake. But, they can be the determining factor between life and death. Eight drownings and two boat ing fatalities have taken place this year on Lake Lanier, according to Mark McKinnon, Georgia DNR’s public affairs officer for the Law Enforcement Division. Two recent incidents occurred back-to-back, in less than 24 hours on Memorial Day weekend. The body of 30-year-old Reginald Whitehead of Perry was located around 10:45 p.m. on May 25, at Shoal Creek Park, followed by 61-year-old Michael Thompson just after midnight, near his boat dock in the 5400 block of Pine Lorest Road. Capt. Brad Rounds oversees Hall County’s Marine Patrol Division, which was recently placed under the Uniform Patrol Division. He said one of the most common trends he finds with lake deaths involves the victim’s lack of a life jacket. Whitehead was reported by authorities as not wear ing a personal flotation device and unable to swim. “If you don’t know how to swim, please always wear a life jacket,” Rounds said. “We wouldn’t be dealing with this many drownings if they just put on a lifejacket.” Rounds said keeping Lanier safe is a group effort with his team, Georgia DNR, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Hall County Lire Services. With the warmer months in full swing, marine patrol deputies have ramped up their presence on the lake. “Many people think that they’re just out on a boat on the lake, but there’s a lot more to it,” Rounds said. “There’s so much traffic. We have a lot of the same calls on the street and water.” Rounds, who spent nine years on the Hall County Sheriff’s Office dive team, describes the group as a recovery team, not a rescue team. Hall County Lire Services’ takes the role as the rescue team, arriving at a drowning scene as soon as possible. The Sheriff’s Office dep uties deal mostly with recovering the body. Water and alcohol, a deadly mixture If a person chooses to con sume alcohol while out on the lake, Rounds recommends hav ing a designated driver. “When you compound it with alcohol, it’s a deadly mixture,” he said. Lrom 2015-2018, Georgia DNR estimates 214 incidents of boating under the influence on Lanier. During the same time frame, Allatoona had 121 boating under the influence cases, Oconee had 40 and Sinclair had eight. Martin said she has lots of discussions with her day camp members about safety and not boating when people are drink ing alcohol or swimming when others are using drugs. Her campers range from age 7-12. “Education around water is such a big thing,” Martin said. “There are so many drownings, and those are preventable.” Protecting children from the silent killer Shannon Parris, aquatics manag er at the Trances Meadows Aquatic Center in Gainesville, oversees the facility’s lifeguards in addition to her other duties. She compares drowning victims to those who undergo a heart attack. “Not everyone experiences it the same way, and it’s kind of the same for drowning,” Parris said. “There can be a swimmer who doesn’t appear to be struggling, but unfortunately they turn to breathe and there’s a wall of water from other activity going on. All of a sudden they’ve gone to the bottom or have stopped moving.” Not all drownings happen in silence. The typical movie scene of someone flailing and screaming could also occur. Parris said the way someone drowns depends on how and why they began intaking water. A mistake she said adults often make involves thinking shallow water is safe. “Unfortunately this isn’t always the situation,” she said. “Just because they can touch the bottom, they can still slip and drown.” Lor parents with children, she encourages them to always remain vigilant because “kids can move especially fast.” She recommends staying at an arm’s length. A 10-year-old Hoschton boy was declared dead on Wednesday, July 17, after being pulled from Lanier near Margaritaville on July 11. His 30-year-old father died one day later. DNR Maj. Mike England identified the boy as Ethan Chen and the father as Libao Chen. Capt. Zachary Brackett wrote that the father went under the water to look for Ethan, after noticing that his son had not surfaced. The incident is still under inves tigation from Georgia DNR. Martin said she teaches parents about their role in watching chil dren on the lake. “You can’t pick up a book, you can’t be grilling burgers, you can’t be doing anything,” she said. “You need to be watching your children on the water and doing nothing else.” Parris has only worked at pools, never in open waters. “I have saved people not to the point where they need CPR,” she said. “People that, no pun intend ed, got in over their head.” The best advice she would give someone who spots a potential drowning victim includes “reach and throw, don’t go.” r CALL NOW & SAVE UP TO 84% 1 . 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