FOND DU LAC COUNTY, Wis. (NBC 26) - A search will continue for two missing canoers on Lake Winnebago.
The Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office identified the missing men as Dakota Goldapske and Michael Gohde, both 21-year-old men from Fond du Lac.
The Fond du Lac County Communications Center received a 911 call around 8:30 p.m. Monday night from one of two people in distress in a canoe in the lake. Shortly after the call was made, both people were thrown into the water. Neither person was wearing a flotation device.
Several different agencies including Sheriff’s Office patrol deputies and a rescue boat, as well as operators from the Sheriff’s Office Boat Patrol and Water Rescue Team, responded to the lake. A search was conducted via land, water, and air.
Conditions on the lake made things very dangerous for the rescuers and the victims. Those conditions included sustained south winds of 25mph gusting to 40mph, 42 degree Fahrenheit water temperature, waves of four to five feet, and low Lake Winnebago water levels.
Late Tuesday morning, Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt described the conditions while searching:
Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said they were on the phone with the cannoers for between 30 minutes to 45 minutes.
The two people were in the canoe originally when calling 911, but shortly after calling they were thrown out of the canoe into the water and were treading water. They were not wearing personal flotation devices.
The cannoers re-dialed 911 again and were in communications for awhile before being disconnected.
Authorities did locate the canoe and marked its coordinates. Authorities focused their search attempts near where they found the canoe and from where the 911 calls were made.
The sheriff's department will have two large vessels that have sonar equipment and the DNR has a submarine also with sonar equipment. Conditions made it for a tough rescue attempt last night and even today.
The larger vessel that they were using last night was hitting rock bottom because of the wind and low water levels on Lake Winnebago. The smaller vessels couldn’t be taken out because of the conditions.
The Coast Guard was dispatched from Traverse City, Michigan with a helicopter last night to begin an aerial search. They left when they were running low on gas.
The Sheriff says the canoers were drifting at a pretty quick rate. He said conditions were less than ideal. Wave conditions were 4 to 5 feet and wind gusts were high.
