Yesterday evening, a strong thunderstorm ripped through our area. The storm caught many boaters by surprise in our area. Fireboat 8 was alerted for an overturned boat in the Potomac River near Buoy #43. While responding, intel was received that there may be several separate incidents. Fireboat 8 continued south to Wades Bay and located two overturned tow-boats. The tow-boats had been working to assist a disabled cabin cruiser when the storm arrived. One of the boaters in the area reported a recorded wind-speed of 87 mph. Both tow-boat operators had been assisted by a third tow-boat. Fireboat 8’s crew confirmed there were no injuries. The crew then boarded the initial disabled vessel and assisted the four occupants over to FB8. Those occupants were transported back to their home marina in the Aquia Creek. After dropping them off, Fireboat 8 was flagged down by another disabled vessel in the Aquia Creek. Due to another round of severe storms approaching, that vessel was towed back to a local marina. This operation was performed in extremely rough seas with heavy rain and lightning all around.
During this time, our station was alerted and responded to numerous other storm related incidents throughout the area.
