Kayaker answers call for help on Clinton Lake

Recreational Sunday outing on the water turns into a rescue operation

Mike O’Connor’s peaceful Sunday afternoon of kayaking at Clinton Lake came to an abrupt halt when he heard someone calling for help.

Moments later O’Connor was using his kayak to a pull a man who was barely conscious out of the frigid, rough water to safety. A second man was rescued by people in a motorboat.

“I was sitting on the beach resting when I heard a very muffled cry,” O’Connor said later. “I thought he said ‘help.’ Then I heard it one more time after a few seconds.”

O’Connor said he saw the man bobbing in the water, held up by his life jacket but otherwise mostly unresponsive. He guided his kayak over to the man.

“I told him to grab the back of my kayak, which is what you are supposed to do in these situations,” O’Connor said. “He did, and he didn’t tip me over or anything and I pulled him in. He was very cold and had hypothermia.”

The man O’Connor rescued, Douglas Evans, 41, Wellsville, had been fishing with his dad, Ken Evans, 63, Ottawa, in a boat when the boat apparently capsized because of high waves, spilling them into the water, according to a spokeswoman with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

“He said his dad was out there and he refused to go anywhere,” O’Connor said. “I couldn’t see his dad in the water.”

Others on the bank at what is known as Boat Ramp No. 3, located at 632 North 1415 Road in the state park section of the lake, called for help and a motorboat found the second victim floating in the water and brought him to safety, O’Connor said.

video 6News video: Kayaker, boaters aid in lake rescue

Meanwhile sheriff’s officers, firefighters and medics from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical and Kanwaka Township responded to the lake.

The men, identified by the sheriff’s office, were taken by ambulance to Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Fire Department Division Chief Bill Stark said. Both were treated and released, a nursing supervisor said.

O’Connor, a Kansas University doctoral student from Shreveport, La., said he had been kayaking for about two years. This was his first water rescue, he said.