Search on for man in apparent drowning at Airport Lake Park near New Hampton

By Kelly Terpstra, sports@nhtrib.com

A search was underway early Monday afternoon after a man was reported to have drowned at Airport Lake Park in New Hampton over Memorial Day weekend.

A call was made to local law enforcement shortly after 1:30 p.m. Monday about a male in his 40s who was reported to have gone under the water and did not surface at the 57-acre park northwest of New Hampton near the municipal airport.

“Our 911 call came in just before 1:40 p.m. stating that there was a male that had been under the water for a minute at that point. So they got resources paged,” said Bridget Edson, public information spokesperson for Chickasaw County EMS.

Edson said the recovery process has not found or identified a body as of late Monday afternoon.

“At this point it’s just a search effort,” said Edson. “I’m pretty confident we can get this resolved before night, but I can’t say that for sure.”

A witness to the incident, Larry Reams, was one of several individuals who tried to save the apparently drowning victim.

“His arms went up in the air, then he went under,” Reams said. “Then he came back up and a kayak was almost there and then she lost him. We were out there searching for a good 20 minutes on kayaks. We had like 10 of his out there.”

Reams said the group the apparent drowning victim was with did not speak English and that two males from that party had tried to swim the length of the lake. Edson said the current water temperature of the lake near New Hampton’s airport is 70 degrees.

“From what I heard he swam across there once and then he was going to do it again. Then he didn’t make it back a second time,” said Reams. “There was two of them. The other one about drowned, too. Another lady with a kayak took a life jacket out to him.”

Edson said local law enforcement and medical personnel that were on site consisted of the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Department, New Hampton Police Department, Chickasaw County Rescue Squad, Chickasaw County EMS, New Hampton Fire Department and Chickasaw County Conservation.

Edson said the Ionia Fire Department was also going to bring its boat out on the lake to search for the missing individual as well on Monday. Edson said a dive team and the Iowa DNR (Department of Natural Resources) was en route.

“The Sheriff’s Department is working on getting witnesses and everything,” said Edson. “We are right now doing a graph water search to hopefully encounter this individual and recover them. We don’t have additional details at this time.”

This is the second drowning victim in the last three days in the state of Iowa as a Johnston man was reported to have drowned Saturday night at Lake Red Rock near the southern Iowa towns of Pella and Knoxville, according to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.

“It’s just kind of that time of the year that these things start firing up. It’s unfortunate. We just ask that people are just very mindful and aware of their surroundings. People need to wear life jackets and take care of each other,” said Edson.

Edson said the lake’s depth is about eight feet, but that can be deceiving.

“I think it drops off pretty quick and that can surprise people,” added Edson.