Park Service warns lake visitors of drowning dangers

Jace Radke

Tuesday, May 18, 1999 | 12:08 p.m.

The National Park Service is investigating similar circumstances in four unrelated drownings in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area over the last five days. Top among them are lake conditions in May that are unfriendly to swimmers.

"There are a lot of factors that we are looking into including alcohol, weather conditions, water temperature and people overextending themselves," Park Service spokeswoman Kay Rohde said.

The first drowning was Thursday at 11:45 a.m. Lake Mohave, where a 49-year-old Romanian man drowned while swimming, witnesses said.

About 2:30 p.m. Thursday rangers found 28-year-old Las Vegan Jose J. Ramirez drowned in about 6 feet of water near Hemenway Harbor at Lake Mead.

Just before 4 p.m. that same day, a third drowning victim was found near Lake Mead's Boulder Beach. Luis J. Montes DeOca, 22, of Las Vegas was taken to the park's medical center where he was pronounced dead.

And at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday David Herra-Lopez, 18, of Las Vegas died while swimming from a raft near Government Wash in Lake Mead. Park Service divers found the man in 35 feet of water about 100 yards from the shore.

All of the drownings were in water that was about 65 degrees, which is about 20 degrees cooler than the lake's temperature in the peak summer months, Rohde said.

"At 64 and 65 degrees you are looking at temperatures cold enough for hypothermia," Rodhe said. "Three of the men were swimming in jeans, and denim is a material that transmits cold.

"The colder a person is the more fatigued they will become when swimming.

"Every year toward the end of May we usually have some kind of incident," Rohde said. "For a lot of people May is the first time that they go out to the lake and they don't pay attention as well as they should."

Life jackets for those who can't swim and for children is the most important safety tip to remember at the lake, Rodhe said. Swimmers should also never swim alone, stay away from alcohol and always take what they are doing seriously.

The Park Service is considering more signs at beaches warning swimmers of the dangers and initiating more education for those visiting the park

The Park Service already provides an educational program for Clark County students.

"The program teaches kids to find out what the problem is," Rodhe said. "If someone is drowning, they're taught to reach out to them with a stick or another object or throw the victim something to use as a flotation device. Finally they're taught never to go in after the victim because then there may be two victims."