Three people remained missing Sunday after an overturned boat was found just offshore from the YMCA Camp on Deer Island in Lake Pepin, where rescuers pulled three survivors from the water and kept searching through the morning.
The Pepin County Sheriff’s office said it got a call around 10:45 p.m. Saturday reporting people screaming for help in Lake Pepin. Officers then found the pontoon boat overturned near Deer Island in Wisconsin, and the three people on it were able to cling to the hull until help reached them. They told responders that three others had been aboard and had not been found.
By 10:30 a.m. Sunday, the search was still active. Rescue boats, drones, helicopters and other resources were being used in a large-scale effort, and a representative from the sheriff’s office said agencies from Minnesota and Wisconsin were responding to the incident. The Wabasha County Sheriff’s Office also confirmed the boating accident on Lake Pepin.
Authorities said the incident happened near the Deer Island YMCA Camp, but no campers or staff were involved. That detail matters because the overturned boat was found close enough to the camp to raise immediate concern, even as officials made clear the emergency was tied to the water and not to anyone on shore.
The identities of the missing people had not been released Sunday morning, and officials had not said what caused the pontoon boat to overturn. The search now turns on two unanswered questions that matter most to the families waiting for news: where the three missing people are, and whether the water will give up that answer before the day is over.
