Wyoming Rescuers Pluck Woman & 5-Year-Old Daughter From Swollen Lake
It was a busy day for Park County Search and Rescue on Friday last week, with rescuers responding to two simultaneous calls — one in the Beartooth high country and the other one on a swollen Buffalo Bill Reservoir.
At roughly 4:45 p.m., Park County dispatchers received a report that a 67-year-old man and 72-year-old woman were unable to get back to their vehicle. The woman had been kayaking at Lily Lake in the Beartooths and overturned her kayak. Though she and her husband were able to get back to shore, she and her husband were too exhausted from the event to get back to their vehicle.
Ultimately, rescuers assisted them back to their car safe and unharmed.
Meanwhile, other Park County rescuers were called to Buffalo Bill Reservoir after a report that a 28-year-old woman and her 5-year-old child were being blown into the lake from sudden high winds.
Authorities said in a social media post the wind quickly picked up as the woman was paddling a kayak and towing her daughter toward the shore when the wind picked up, blowing them back out. The kayak apparently flipped at roughly 5:30 p.m. and both the woman and child ended up in the water.
"PCSAR wasted no time getting in the water. Deputies assisted by taking high points on the bank and glassing (binoculars) the water," the release states. "The wind was blowing and gusting so hard it was pushing the units still onshore forward. The surface of the water was very turbulent and nothing, but white caps which were 6 to 8 feet tall, were visible to the searchers."
Searchers initially found the kayak floating empty at 5:50 p.m. Then, at 6:06 p.m., they found the child who was wearing a lifejacket. The child was immediately lifted into the boat and wrapped in blankets.
The mother was found at 6:24 p.m., still above the surface and conscious and alert. She was taken to the shore and turned over to a waiting ambulance and reunited with her daughter.
Both were taken to a hospital in Cody.