Dateline: June 24, 2004

Boat falls on man, kills him at Lake Greenbelt

By Roger Estlack, Clarendon Enterprise  

An Amarillo man was killed at Lake Greenbelt Monday night after high winds picked up his boat and dropped it on top of him.

Guadalupe Ortega, Jr., and his girlfriend, April Baca, were attempting to better secure Ortega’s 18-foot aluminum pontoon boat on the shore near the north end of the Greenbelt Dam when the storm hit, according to Donley County Sheriff Butch Blackburn.

“The boat was apparently pointed east,” Blackburn said. “The wind picked it up, turned it north and south, and dropped it on the man.”

Ortega was pinned with part of the heavy end of the boat on top of his upper chest. Baca also received a slight injury to her shoulder.

Blackburn said Ortega’s brother, Lionel, and his family jacked up the boat to get the man free. The call of the emergency was dispatched about 11:30 p.m., and the sheriff responded.

“The brother told me that [Ortega] was choking,” he said, “but when I got there, I could tell he wasn’t breathing and couldn’t find a pulse.”

Deputy Mike Spier began CPR, and Clarendon EMS transported Ortega to Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo, where he was pronounced dead about two hours later. An autopsy was being conducted in Lubbock on Tuesday to determine the exact cause of death.

Sheriff Blackburn said unofficial reports said the wind was blowing 73 miles per hour at the time of the accident. The sheriff also said he had no idea how much Ortega’s boat weighed but said it took seven men Tuesday morning to push it back into the water.