Search resumes for missing Saylorville Lake boater; no plans to close mile-long bridge

Bill Steiden, Des Moines Register
Updated ·2 min read
Emergency vehicles near the boat ramp on the west side of the mile-long bridge at Saylorville Lake during a 2014 search for a missing boater. The bridge was closed Monday as a search for another boater was underway.
Emergency vehicles near the boat ramp on the west side of the mile-long bridge at Saylorville Lake during a 2014 search for a missing boater. The bridge was closed Monday as a search for another boater was underway.

Crews resumed their search operation early Tuesday for a man who has been missing from a boat on Saylorville Lake since Monday evening.

The Iowa 415 bridge across Saylorville Lake, popularly known as the mile-long bridge, was closed late Monday as authorities searched for the man. It re-opened at dark and Polk County sheriff's spokesperson Capt. Ryan Evans said they have no plans to close it down Tuesday.

Evans said crews resumed at 7 a.m. and have nine boats and a dive team searching the water.

The search began after the sheriff's office received several 911 calls Monday evening from people who said the man fell from the boat and had not resurfaced.

"We hope that this is a rescue and not a recovery operation," Evans said. "But time is not on our side in a situation like this."

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Evans said the Memorial Day weekend is the traditional beginning of the Iowa boating and swimming season ― and also the time of year when hazardous situations multiply on Iowa waterways like Saylorville Lake, the largest in the Des Moines metro.

"Obviously, with the weather the way it is, the lake has been drawing a lot of boaters and swimmers," he said.

It was the third reported marine accident of the holiday weekend in Iowa. On Saturday night, a 21-year-old Johnston man disappeared after submerging while swimming in Lake Red Rock between Pella and Knoxville. Marion County sheriff's officials recovered the body of Urias Gbarjolo, a University of Dubuque student and athlete, the following morning.

Also Saturday, Jeffrey Mattison, 51, of Cedar Rapids, was transported by helicopter to the University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics after his boat crashed into a bridge piling in the Cedar River, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Search resumes for missing Saylorville Lake boater