On July 4, 2023 at approximately 2219 hours, the Geary County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from an individual stating that they were with two other people on Milford Reservoir and the boat they were on was taking on water, due to the severe storm that was passing through the area, and that they did not have life jackets. Game Wardens 1 and 2 with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks responded to the area and launched their patrol vessel in attempt to locate the occupants of the of the sinking vessel. Geary County Dispatch was able to provide an approximate location to first responders by pinging the individual's phone and the victims activated their phone lights to aid in locating them. The victims were able to be located shortly after launching the patrol boat, with all three victims holding onto the bow. The vessel's port side gunwhale was the only portion of the vessel above the waterline and was listing to the starboard side. The Game Wardens approached the vessel from the downwind side and Game Warden 1 started to throw life jackets to the three individuals. After all three individuals had life jackets, they were instructed to put the them on and attempt to use their vessel to step onto the patrol boat. As they were attempting to climb onto their vessel, the boat started to roll towards the starboard side and completely capsized. As the vessel was rolling, we yelled at them to get clear of the boat. The victims were then instructed to swim to the patrol boat, where Game Warden 1 was able to pull all three people onboard the patrol vessel. After a quick medical check on the victims was conducted, they were instructed to sit on the boat's deck and were taken to the Milford State Park Marina. After arriving at the marina, all three occupants were examined by Geary County Emergency Medical Services. After being cleared by medical personnel, an interview was conducted on the operator/owner of the vessel. The owner was identified as Operator and the two passengers were Passenger 1 and Passenger 2. Operator stated that they had got on the water at approximately 2100 hours, just prior to the heavy storms arriving in the area. Operator said that once the storms arrived, large waves started to crash over the sides of the boat due to the high winds and one large wave opened the hatch that the life jackets were stowed in and pushed the life jackets into the bow of the vessel, where they could not be retrieved as the vessel started to sink. Operator said that the bilge was on and operational, but could not keep up with the large amount of water coming into the vessel. The navigation lights were observed to be operational at the time of the rescue. Operator stated that he attempted to maneuver the vessel back to the West Plains Campground at a slow speed, but could not prevent the waves from coming over the gunwhales. When asked why they did not don the life jackets when the weather started to turn bad, Operator said they did not think about it. The boat was located on July 5, 2023, approximately two miles to the West, near the Curtis Creek Campground. Operator was able to salvage the vessel on the same day.
Milford Reservoir
Junction City                 