2 dead after boat capsizes on Lake Diefenbaker

Two men have died after a boat capsized on Lake Diefenbaker Thursday night.

Glen Amor, chief of the Elbow Volunteer Fire Department, said 911 dispatch called around 9:30 p.m.

From there, Amor said he and the owner of the local marina headed to the lake to join RCMP, who had already been sent to the scene.

Amor said he and the marina owner arrived near Elbow to find a couple had recovered one of the bodies.

“There was a couple in a kayak that had pulled one of the people out of the water. She was a paramedic so she did CPR and tried to revive this person, but they determined he was deceased,” Amor said.

With RCMP suggesting they’d observed a second man in the water from shore Amor said he and the marina owner took a pontoon boat out to search the choppy waters. Amor said the waves were still as much as one-and-half metres – or five feet – high.

“We found some debris – the seats from the boat and a couple of paddles – but we couldn’t find him, so we stopped our search and then we returned to Elbow,” he said.

Amor said he had no information on what kind of boat the men were in when the storm hit.

“The lady that was in the kayak said a big wave hit (the boat) — it just turned nose up and it just went straight down. So we never did identify what kind of boat it was, how big it was,” he said.

The second man’s body was recovered when searchers were able to get back out onto the lake early Friday morning.

Amor said their names wouldn’t be released until families could be notified.

Both men were reportedly found wearing life jackets.

– With files from Chris Vandenbreekel.