Topic: Boater search uses sonar; Carroll man, 64, missing in Black Hawk Lake

[RGecy]

This is kind of a follow up to the "Man's body recovered from lake" posted Thursday.

By ANGELA BURCH, Messenger staff writer
POSTED: August 8, 2009  

LAKE VIEW - Divers suspended their search around 8 p.m. Friday for a 64-year-old Carroll man who apparently drowned Thursday while boating on Black Hawk Lake.

Lake View Police Chief Ted Helmich said rescuers were anticipating the arrival of an Omaha man whose sonar equipment had successfully located the body of a man in 30 feet of water in Beaver Lake Thursday.

Helmich said the Carroll man's body is likely in far shallower water, from 7 to 8 feet deep. He disappeared in the murky Sac County lake after attempting to untangle a rope from his boat's propeller.

The man was boating with his wife and grandchild at the time of the accident, Helmich said.

"The family was out boating, getting ready to tube (when) they threw the tube in the water, the rope got caught around the (propeller)," said Jim Garrels, Lake View Fire Department chief.

"So the gentleman jumped in the water to get the rope out of the prop. ... He was out there for awhile, then all of a sudden called for help and then went under."

The man's name has not been released.

Divers from Plymouth, Sioux, Carroll, Story and Crawford counties began searching for the man about 3 p.m. Thursday and continued diving until about 12:30 a.m. Friday. They resumed the search at 7 a.m. Friday and were to continue diving until the body was located, Helmich Friday afternoon.

Helmich said a person who had read a newspaper account of the Omaha man's sonar equipment prompted the decision to contact him. Terry Johnson, of the Twin Rivers Bass Club, was expected to arrive at Black Hawk Lake between 9:30 and 10 p.m. Friday with his Hummingbird Side Imaging Sonar, Helmich said.

"I wish I had known about this 30 hours ago," Helmich said Friday night while awaiting Johnson's arrival.

He said the search was concentrating just off Denison Beach, which is on the northeast end of Black Hawk Lake outside Town Bay.

Officials with the Department of Natural Resources have also been on scene during the search.

Sac City is eight miles north of Black Hawk Lake and two miles east on U.S. Highway 20. Black Hawk Lake, a 957-acre body of water, is characterized by the DNR as an ideal spot for swimming, boating and fishing. Residential homes line the shore and the lake is connected to Black Hawk State Park.