The Herald-News - News Story

For the second time in less than a month, boaters near Watts Bar Dam were rescued after getting caught in turbulent water churned by the facility's turbines.

William Goney, 40, his daughter Brittany, 17, and Ricky Short, 27, were pulled off a sinking boat by a fisherman who heard the screams of the teenage girl.

The three boaters from Celina, Tenn., were uninjured.

"I thought we were going to die," William Goney said of the ordeal in a phone interview with The Herald-News.

Rhea County Rescue Squad Captain Doug Reed said he has never seen two incidents caused by Watts Bar's turbines in such a short timeframe.

"You wonder if the third time it'll actually get somebody," he said.

Goney said he and his two passengers were fishing on the south side of the dam at about 5 p.m. Saturday when he heard warning sirens sound, signaling the dam's turbines were about to start discharging water.

He said he tried to maneuver his 16-foot fiberglass fishing boat away from the dam wall, but before he could the turbines kicked in, sloshing water around the boat.

Soon it started taking on water.

Goney told his daughter and Short to move to the front of the boat as water slowly filled the hull.

Goney said his daughter was terrified.

"We're gonna die, daddy. We're gonna die," she kept telling him.

Goney grabbed an emergency air horn and let it wale and told his daughter to call for help.

"Keeping screaming for help," he told her.

That's what caught 38-year-old Richard Vose's attention.

"It was a bloody scream," Vose recalled.

The Acworth, Ga., man untied his 24-foot, 215-horsepower boat from shore and raced to Goney's boat.

Goney was able to get his daughter off his sinking boat along with Short. By the time Goney climbed onto Vose's boat, he was sinking along with the boat, waist-deep in water, he said.

"I just ripped them onto my boat," Vose said. "Their boat went down within five seconds of getting [Goney] off," he said.

In the midst of the churning waters discharged from the turbines, Vose's engine died, and his boat was thrashed against the dam wall. But he regained power, he said, and was able to push through the suction caused by the swirling water.

"I just gunned it," he said. "We almost became part of the statistics, but thankfully and luckily it worked out."

Vose headed back to shore, where Rhea County Rescue workers arrived shortly after.

This circumstances leading to this accident were almost identical to that of another accident that stranded a group of boaters from Kentucky last month, Captain Reed said. Boaters
strayed too close to the dam when its turbines kicked in, swirling water around the dam. The area in which water from the turbines is discharged is known as the boil line.

Goney said he admits he and his passengers were too close to the dam, but he wonders if TVA should do anything more to keep the area clear of boaters.

"There are signs that say, 'Keep away,' but they could do better if they wanted to," he said.
"But we were ignorant."

Goney added that if Vose had not showed up, he, his daughter and Short would probably have drowned.

"I guess he's a guardian angel, because God sent him over there to save us," he said. "If it wasn't for Richard and the Lord, we wouldn't be here."

Vose said he's just glad no one was hurt.

"You just count your lucky stars," he said.

Michael Reneau can be contacted at michael.reneau@rheaheraldnews.com.