Occupants of capsized boat in Lake Geneva that killed 3 children are from Batavia, Wheaton, police say

LAKE GENEVA, Wis. — Joseph Roberts was spending a day with his family on the Lake Geneva beach Friday afternoon when he looked up and saw a black sky.

Roberts, 45, went to get a tarp for his truck, but quickly realized the storm would outpace him. Within minutes, he said, “pandemonium” had arrived.

“These winds were vicious,” Roberts said. “Six foot whitecaps, throwing boats — at least two flipped over.”

Roberts and his family sheltered in his truck, he said. As they emerged, trying to get their bearings, they started to hear sirens. Roberts’ mother ventured down toward where emergency workers were swarming the beach and came back with a terrible observation: “This couple was down there, hysterical,” he said. “They had lost children, there were three missing.”

The three children, whose identities were not released as of Monday afternoon, were aboard a boat that capsized in the storm, authorities said. Their deaths and the vast damage from the storm cast a pall over the Fourth of July weekend in the Wisconsin vacation spot.

Authorities on Monday said the people aboard the boat that capsized Friday were from suburban Batavia and Wheaton, as well as the town of Fontana, Wisconsin.

Roberts has been haunted by the deaths over the last few days.

“Being a parent, I keep feeling the sense of, I couldn’t imagine losing a child,” he said. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through in their hearts and minds.”

Extensive boating experience

Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Agency said 10 people were on board the privately owned 25-foot 2024 Nautique P25 vessel when the “sudden and severe” storm system swept across Walworth County and the surrounding area Friday.

Occupants of the boat ranged in ages from 6 to 75, and investigation records show that all the children on board the vessel were wearing life jackets of proper size and fit, authorities said.

Based on wind that damaged barns and metal buildings and snapped or uprooted hundreds of trees, the National Weather Service estimated winds of 90 to 100 mph Friday, equivalent to winds in a Category 2 hurricane.

Although the 47-year-old man who was operating the capsized boat had “extensive boating experience” and attempted to seek refuge from the weather, conditions worsened quickly and several large waves struck over the bow, authorities said. The boat took on “a significant amount of water” and tipped to one side before a large wave struck the boat, causing it to roll and capsize altogether, sending its 10 occupants into the water and sinking.

A passing vessel immediately called 911, authorities said, and first responders successfully recovered seven individuals — six adults and one child — before being alerted that three children remained unaccounted for.

After an intensive search, divers located the sunken vessel in 32 feet of water and the three missing children — ages 10, 7, and 6 — were found inside, authorities said. Divers freed the children from the vessel and brought them to the surface where emergency responders began lifesaving measures that were continued as they were rushed to medical facilities, authorities said.

Despite the efforts, the children were pronounced dead. Preliminary medical information indicates their cause of death was considered consistent with freshwater drowning. The children suffered no external injuries.

“The Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Agency received multiple emergency complaints regarding capsized boats and individuals in the water,” authorities said in the news release. “While all other distress calls were resolved positively, one incident resulted in a severe tragedy.”

The incident remains under investigation, authorities said.

“The Geneva Lake Law Enforcement Agency extends its deepest, most heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and everyone affected by this heartbreaking tragedy,” authorities said in the release.

‘Everyone was taken by surprise’

Stephanie Klett, the president and CEO of VISIT Lake Geneva, said Friday was “a day of mourning” for the city and the thousands who had come to spend the weekend there.

Klett had been downtown Friday afternoon when her husband called, telling her a storm was coming and she should get home. She was skeptical, she said. It was still sunny out.

But in the time it took her to drive a loop of downtown, stop at the Culver’s drive-through for lunch and get home — about 10 minutes — ”that storm was here.”

“It looked like a car wash,” she said. “Buckets of rain. I couldn’t see the color of the sky because the rain was so dense. And the winds, they were howling.”

Julie Parsons Carani, who was vacationing at Geneva Lake on Friday, said the storm swept in abruptly and furiously.

“I’ve never seen something come in that quickly on Lake Geneva,” she said. “I’ve never seen so many people misjudge it and run out of time like that.”

Before a storm, the Geneva Lake Water Safety Patrol often circles the lake with lights flashing and a red flag to warn people off the water, though Parsons Carani didn’t see that Friday.

“I see so many comments online about why didn’t they get to shore,” she said. “They have no idea. Everyone was taken by surprise.”

When the storm arrived, she said, “It went black like it was night time. We went from a pleasant but humid day to it raining and blowing sideways. It was really freaky.”

Her son had to run down to cover their boat, which was docked, and then had to shelter in the boat because the storm was so severe.

“It’s just awful,” she said. “I can’t imagine. My heart breaks for those people.”

Amid a sense of shock, a time to get together

On Monday afternoon, clean-up crews were removing large downed trees on Route 120 near the east end of Geneva Lake.

Most of the city of Lake Geneva had its power back, but Klett said large swathes of some neighboring towns were still without electricity. Power was expected to return to all of Lake Geneva by 10 p.m. Monday and to all of the neighboring town of Geneva by 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to a news release.

Anthony Silvestri, the managing partner of several restaurants in the area, said the storm had brought “a lot of devastation” to not just the town of Lake Geneva but many cities and towns nearby.

“Tons of snapped power lines and trees down everywhere,” he said. “Lines across roads, stuff like that.”

He described a sense of shock around town.

“Lake Geneva has had some tornadoes but nothing like this,” he said.

Adding to the storms’ impact, he said, was the fact that the city was “packed” for the long holiday weekend. Lake Geneva has a population of about 8,800 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But Silvestri estimated that four times as many people were in the area for the Fourth of July.

Klett said the estimated 2,100 hotel rooms around Walworth County were nearly sold out. That’s not even counting the bed and breakfasts and short-term rentals or the day-trippers, she added.

Klett estimates about 40% of those visitors were from the Chicago area. Lake Geneva is a destination in large part due to Chicago, she said, beginning with wealthy industrialists who wanted to be close to clean water in the wake of the Chicago Fire: “We just became a place for Chicagoans. It was a who’s who of Chicago, and then the world started coming.“

Some of the city’s most famous Chicago names include the philanthropist Richard Driehaus, who donated the fountain in front of Lake Geneva’s Riviera building, the Wrigley family and Gov. JB Pritzker, who was issued a ticket for speeding on Geneva Lake in 2019.

Silvestri said it had been a whirlwind few days as people tried to help one another out, from offering people places to charge phones to helping local businesses save their perishable inventories to keeping the cleanup efforts fueled.

He’d sent a food truck from his restaurant Magpie’s Den and Pen to help a bar in nearby Lake Como keep cleanup volunteers fed, he said, and delivered “20-something” pizzas to the battalion of law enforcement and emergency workers who were stationed in the area.

“They’re out there working their asses off,” he said. “We have a pretty tight community.”

A moment like this, he said, was the time to show that off — “to get together and send it and help as many people as possible.”

As cleanup entered its fourth day, Klett added that “a spirit of togetherness” was prevailing as people helped their neighbors clear debris, and local businesses donated food and supplies to first responders and public works teams.

“I have been blown away by how quickly the city is doing cleanup,” she said. “It is one of those things where neighbors are helping neighbors.”