Marina security officer helps coordinate water rescue at Lake Texoma
DENISON, Tex. January 6 2019 A security officer at Grandpappy Marina helped coordinate a rescue after a man drove his car into the lake on Tuesday night.
“The plan was sort of off the top of our head, we had to do what we could do with what we had,” said Grandpappy Marina security officer Noel Shoultz, who helped coordinate a water rescue that saved a man’s life.
Shoultz says she got a call from Grayson County Dispatch late Tuesday night that a man drove his truck into the water.
When she arrived at the boat ramp where the truck was, she could hear the man yelling from his car.
“When we were on the shoreline we could hear him yelling he could not swim, he got out and sat on the window of the car and was holding on as best he could. He did get to the point where he was yelling he couldn’t hold on anymore,” said Shoultz.
Shoultz said the outside temperature dipped below freezing that night, while the water temperature was close to 50 degrees.
However they were able to get him out without anyone having to get into that dangerously cold water.
“So I went up the hill, and I had a boat owner there that night. I went down into the boat house and pounded on the walls, more or less, until I could get him to come out,” said Shoultz.
They pulled the man out of the truck and took him to shore, but still needed to get the truck out of the water.
“We needed another boat, so we waited on one of our boat owners, he got a pontoon boat, came over and picked up the tow truck driver, put him on top of the truck, able to secure the truck and tow it out,” said Shoultz.
Shoultz says it was her previous experience that helped with this rescue.
“I’ve been there a long time, so I do know just about every boat owner that’s there after five,” said Shoultz.
DPS says the man may have drove into the lake because he was unfamiliar with the area.
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