Crews search for 2 presumed drowned at Lake Powell

PAGE, Ariz. — Searches resumed Wednesday for two missing men presumed to have drowned in Lake Powell in separate incidents.

On Sept. 21, a 35-year-old Salt Lake man was swimming out to a houseboat in the Gunsight Bay area when he started calling for help, said Glen Canyon National Recreation Area spokeswoman Denise Shultz.

Before friends could reach him, he slipped beneath the water and could not be found, she said. Shultz noted that Gunsight Bay was deeper than other areas because it had underwater canyons.

On Monday, in a separate incident, a 58-year-old Scottsdale, Ariz., man was on a jet ski trying to reach a drifting houseboat that had broken free during a heavy windstorm that produced high waves.

As the man and a passenger approached the boat, the lanyard for the kill switch fell off and into the water. The Arizona man jumped in after it, Shultz said. The passenger was able to restart the jet ski and got to the drifting houseboat, but neither he nor the group he was with could find their friend.

The Utah Highway Patrol Dive Team was among several groups participating in the searches for the two missing men on Wednesday, as well as the Kane County Sheriff's Office and the National Park Service.

The presumed drownings of the two men would mark the sixth and seventh drowning victims at Glen Canyon this year, and the 12th fatality overall. The most fatalities at Glen Canyon in one year was 13.

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