Floating down the Des Moines River Tuesday probably sounded like the perfect antidote to a humid, sweltering day, but a sudden, ferocious turn in the weather resulted in a nightmare for five Keokuk teens.
Kegan Bawden, 18, Johnathan Marshall, 17, Tony Westermeyer, Devon Lewis and Blake Meyers launched the trip at about 3 p.m. from St. Francisville, Mo.
“Me and my other buddy had life jackets on and were just floating,” Bawden said. “The others were using tubes.”
Bawden is a strong swimmer and confident in the water. He’s been a life guard for four years and swam on the Keokuk High School and Hoerner YMCA swim teams.
At about 6:30 to 7 p.m., a severe thunderstorm hit, complete with strong winds, rain and frequent lightning. Bawden and Marshall headed for land and got out of the river. The current picked up speed and the water became choppy.
“When the storm hit, I knew we’d be in big trouble,” Bawden said.
The other three teens rode the racing river and disappeared from sight.
“They said they had tried to get to dry land, but the current picked up,” Bawden said. “We were more worried about the other three than we were about ourselves. They kept going down the river.
“We walked about a mile up Sugar Creek looking for help, and then came back. We were going to float down to Red Wing Access this morning (Wednesday) and see if we could find them.”
All this time, the wind was howling, the sky was dark and frequent lightning added up to a wild night.
“I heard branches crackle and go down,” Bawden said. “There was a lot of lightning so I was trying to stay out of the water.”
The cold front pushing the storm dropped the temperature. Bawden and Marshall, who were wearing only shorts, no shoes, tried to cover themselves with sand to keep warm.
The three teens who had floated downstream were able to make shore in the vicinity of Red Wing Access. They walked out to find help and alerted authorities.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office was called at 8:52 p.m., according to Sheriff Buck Jones, and called the Keokuk Volunteer Emergency Corps to start a search.
“We launched a land search,” said Kevin Baker, commander of the emergency corps. “Lee County called in Jackson Township Fire and Rescue and they aided in the search. We searched the riverbank and shore.”
The Jackson Township Volunteer Fire Association was called out at 11:50 p.m.
“Everybody met at the fire station,” said Jackson Township Fire Chief Paul Henson. “We divided them up, about 40 of them, into groups and gave each group a segment of the river from Sugar Creek to Red Wing Access.”
Then at 1:50 a.m., Wednesday, a team of firefighters heard Bawden and Marshall yelling. The boys were on a dry strip of land, but it was surrounded by water.
“It’s off of what we used to call Jabberwocky Lane,” Henson said. “I think its 390th Street now. They were on the old riverbed, but the river had cut through.”
Baker described the teens’ location as looking similar to an island.
The teens saw the rescuers’ spotlight before they heard anyone, and yelled to attract attention, Bawden said. Rescuers told the boys right away that the other three teens had made it safely out of the river.
“They were happy to be found,” Henson said. “We never laid eyes on them, but firefighters sat tight and talked to them all night long and made sure they were okay.”
The Des Moines River was running so fast, rescuers decided to wait until the morning to put their boats in the water.
“They said they’d pick us up at the break of dawn,” Bawden said.
When morning came, rescuers launched the emergency corps and Jacksonville Township rescue boats.
“The current was very swift,” Henson said. “I was very surprised to see how strong it was.”
Bawden and Marshall came out of the experience with mosquito bites and scratches, but were otherwise in pretty good shape, Baker and Henson said.
However, tubing days are over for at least one of them.
“I’m not going floating anymore,” Bawden said. “That was my first time down that part of the river. I used to float from Farmington to Argyle (on the Des Moines River). If I go back down the river, it’s going to be in a boat.”
Bawden will attend Southeastern Community College this year and intends to transfer to Western Illinois University in Macomb to study law enforcement.
Marshall’s mother, Cathy Beals, said her son is “okay.” He was sleeping this morning and unavailable for comment.
