GENOA, Wis — The rescue of seven people whose disabled boat was sucked through a gate at the Mississippi River’s Genoa dam has heroes:
> Travis Zabinsky, the lock master.
> Chris Olson and Dave Sudol, lock workers.
This is how Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson explained what happened:
> A 20-foot Crownline pleasure craft stalled 1-1/2 miles above the dam and began drifting with the current toward the dam. On board were seven people including a child.
> It was unclear whether the boat operator, Brandon Kumm, age 29, of La Crosse, attempted to drop anchor. If so, the anchor didn’t catch in the river-bottom muck
> At the dam Olson and Sudol spotted the boaters desperately paddling as the current carried the boat into a 600-foot restricted zone above the dam.
> Zabinsky, the lockmaster, closed the dam gates.
> All seven passengers jumped into the water and were swept away.
> A few painfully anxious seconds later, all seven bobbed to the surface.
> Olson and Sudol threw them life preservers.
> Everyone climbed built-in ladders to safety atop the dam or were pulled up.
> Meanwhile, the boat came to rest upright against the dam wall.
> Although wet and shaken, nobody injured.
At rest after crisis. The Crownline pleasure boat ended right side up against the wall of a dam gate. No capsizing. In retrospect, the boaters probably would have been safer to have stayed aboard. Images: Vernon County sheriff
Dam gates. This dam gate is one of 15 at Genoa that created the Mississiopi’s Pool 8 in 1937. The pool extends 30 miles upriver to LaCrosse. The dam holds back 1.23 trillion cubic feet of water.
Straddling state line. The dam abuts Minnesota’s Houston County and Wisconsin’s Vernon County.