HOUSTON — Coast Guard air and boat crews rescued four adults and a child after they drifted from their 27-foot boat while swimming, after it ran out of gas less than a mile from the entrance to the Intracoastal Waterway near Bolivar Peninsula Sunday evening.
“Life jackets absolutely made all the difference in this case. Survivability would have been difficult without the members having life jackets,” said Zach Edwards, command duty officer at Sector Houston-Galveston. “This is yet another example, that life jackets save lives.”
At 8:11 p.m., a woman aboard the boat with two other passengers used her cell phone to call Sector Houston-Galveston watchstanders. She reported that five passengers, including a 2-year-old boy, got in the water to swim while waiting for a tow boat, but drifted away.
Watchstanders launched an MH-65 Dolphin Helicopter aircrew and a Station Galveston 45-foot response boat crew to the scene and issued an urgent marine information broadcast. The Coast Guard boat crew rescued three people within 20 minutes.
At approximately 9 p.m., the aircrew vectored in the boat crew to a man and the child. All five people were taken to Station Galveston where EMS was standing by.
All five rescuees were driven home and the 27-foot boat and other three people were taken in tow by TowBoat U.S., to the Waterford Harbor Marina in Kemah. No injuries were reported.