Praying for victims and family members.

Yep. There will be no survivors of this tragic event. Life jackets or not, hypothermia would have killed them long ago.

I'm wondering how something like this happens. (I've never been on Pickwick and probably haven't been on something even similar, so this is a sincere question.)

Do you get out on a river system, they open the flood gates, your motor goes out and you gradually get carried towards the dam by the resulting current? It seems that if you aren't really close to the dam when the gates are opened, even the trolling motor could get you to the shore where you could call for help. But who knows, maybe they had multiple systems failure and the trolling motor wasn't even an option.

My understanding is that’s exactly what happens and if you’re by the dam where the current is strongest, you are in trouble if you only have a trolling motor. If you try to fight the current by going against it with a trolling motor, you are in trouble if it’s that strong. I would think the best option would be like with an undertow in the ocean. If you get caught in one, you swim sideways to get out of it, not directly back to shore where it’s pulling you.

How's the search going? Prayers for those involved and those on the water looking.

When we were there we never went to the dam but anywhere your at on the lake- you can tell when they are generating/releasing due to the current picking up. I've seen video of them opening gates on the dam while people are fishing near it and it gets real western, really quick.

I read that cameras inside the spillway gates recorded the boat going over the spillway late Saturday. No mention of whether or not the boat was occupied.

They can get a pretty strong current for sure. We kayak down a river in Tennessee below the dam and when they are generating it rises very quickly and you get to moving pretty good several miles down steam and that’s when they aren’t doing much generating. They open the flood gates and it really gets crazy. I’ve been on the Tennessee river but north of where they were, around where I-40 crosses so I’m not that familiar with that area. I grew up more in the eastern half of Tennessee, we didn’t get near the dam when the flood gates were open for this exact reason.

Somebody with some experience on that system help me here....I"ve never been to Lake Pickwick and have no experience with river systems.

From everything I've read, the tournament was on Lake Pickwick. Their boat was found in Savannah, TN. I saw somewhere it said they tournament was held at Pickwick State Park, which is close to the north dam of Lake Pickwick.

What am am I missing? Savannah, TN is NORTH of Lake Pickwick. I know the boat didn't go upriver.

The river flows south to north. Wilson feeds Pickwick so it runs east to west then turns north to the Pickwick dam.

I had no idea. Now it makes sense to me. Thanks.

Someone posted on link on BBC that said it had 3 people onboard when it went over.

I read today that cameras saw the boat as it was going into the dam area. That was between 8:00 and 8:30 Saturday morning. According to another article, the tournament was held out of Pickwick State Park which is right there at the dam. So I would think the current is pretty strong right there at the ramp.

https://www.jacksonsun.com/story/ne...continues-tennessee-students/4865908002/

The dam was letting out 230,000 cfs. That's a ton of water. What a sad deal.

They’ve cut it back to allow boats downstream search the area more easily.

https://www.courieranywhere.com/202...l-fishing-team-still-a-rescue-operation/