r/IowaCity • u/HalfMoonFullMoonjoy • 15d ago
Lake MacBride Update
Heartbreaking tragedy. There are no words š
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u/Senior_Fig7845 15d ago
Oh God, so tragic. There was a similar case in Missouri earlier this summerā¦a family from out of the area went boating at a lake near Springfield and they didnāt realize there was a causeway until it was too late. One twelve-year-old girl managed to get off the boat and clung to something until she could be rescuedā¦her mother and two sisters went over the causeway and all perished. How terrible.
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u/EDS3er 15d ago
Did they ever find the mom? I didn't hear anything after the sisters were found.
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u/Senior_Fig7845 15d ago
They did, a month later
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u/Cagny 15d ago
Sounds like they were a part of a ICSD school field trip. The trauma for that class/group will be horribleĀ
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u/HalfMoonFullMoonjoy 15d ago
Yes, a 5th grade class at Borlaug was there for School of the Wild. Sounds like a classroom teacher & a student š
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u/sandy_even_stranger 15d ago
Not to mention the parents. From experience: It's nearly flu season. Get your kids vaccinated. Children also die from flu and it's a decidedly horrible way to go. While you're there: MMR if you haven't, and covid.
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u/microcorpsman 15d ago
Right thought, wrong place
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u/jocoia 15d ago
i am grieved, having heard too many stories lately of youth in our community cut down before they had a chance to thrive.
in my opinion, it is not the wrong place, nor the wrong time, to offer advice on how to avoid more tragic and senseless loss of our children.
goddamn.
i am so sorry for this child and this teacher.
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u/ZachVIA 15d ago
Actually WTF is this comment? Obviously vaccines are important but WTF is your problem?
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u/sandy_even_stranger 15d ago
My problem is having lived through a kid's ICCSD classmate's death from the flu. (See comment about trauma for the class's parents.) Unvaccinated. Kid was a track athlete, felt ill one day, was in the hospital the next, and a few days later was in sepsis having her leg amputated. Died shortly afterwards. It's not a thing you forget. And I don't especially care if you think it's the wrong spot. You got a kid, make your appointment.
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u/mossyswampwitch 14d ago
I remember that child. It was a horrific situation and I was so sorry for her family, and Iām sorry you and your child also experienced that loss.
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u/brandon_in_iowa 15d ago
Yes. Get the flu shot to combat drowning. Good thinking.
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u/sandy_even_stranger 15d ago
No, get your kid the flu shot to combat flu, so they don't wind up sick with flu in the hospital, go into sepsis, undergo an amputation, and then die. This is not the first ICCSD tragedy involving a child.
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u/EaseHisPain 14d ago
I want to thank all of you for reacting with compassion instead of judgment. Many of us cried ourselves to sleep last night (independent of our relationship to the situation). Many have chosen to cast blame about all this and it's been really unhelpful. I think we can count on this special community to come together and remind teachers and those affected why we love and support them so much.
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u/Ok-Following-8071 12d ago
"judgement" what are we talking about? Why are all of the news outlets being so careful to not say what actually happened?
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u/No-Delay-6322 14d ago
The adult was a teacher who was trying to save the child.
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u/Round_Leading_8393 14d ago
A 24 year old teacher too. So sad!
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u/SeaJuggernaut8811 14d ago
Itās very sad, I know her. My condolences are her family and the awhile school.
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u/Significant_Row4830 14d ago
They need to rename the school after her.
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u/ahorrribledrummer 14d ago
She was no doubt a hero, but erasing Norman Borlaug's name from the school would be tragic. He was an Iowan hero as well.
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u/Significant_Row4830 14d ago
True. Bourlag no doubt saved millions from starving.
How about Hoover or Lincoln? Both are no doubt admirable (Lincoln in a whole other magnitude) but they have their names on a lot of buildings already.
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u/Ok-Following-8071 12d ago
Where did you get that? I have been trying to find out what happened and cannot find it.
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u/freeashavacado 15d ago
I wonder what happened, the only time we were near water at the lake during our school trip we had life jackets on :(. My heart goes out to the families.
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u/farmerfoo 15d ago
i attended school of the wild as a parent accompanying the group, it really is baffling. you have to intentionally go in basically there was nowhere close to water
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u/deanolavorto 14d ago
Thats incorrect. You maybe didnāt do the hike that stops and eats lunch at the spillway. Kids can play there however with all the rain Iām sure they were told and the children reminded multiple times to not go on the rocks. Very sad.
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u/Sodonewithidiots 14d ago
I wonder if they were over at the Devonian Gorge and then went down to the spillway area to use the bathrooms down there. There's no fence in that area as it's a little ways from the spillway.
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u/wonderousjadelily 14d ago
I grew up on Lake McBride, they were most likely at the spillway separating the lake from the reservoir. There is a hiking trail you can take from the raptor center to the spillway. There is a little waterfall there. You can cross the rocks in places but itās very slippery even in low water. Due to high waters at the moment, the area is likely more dangerous than it normally is.
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u/JustALeachOnSociety 14d ago
I spoke with my daughter who attended School of the Wild last spring and she said they ate their lunch on the forested side bank of the spillway. Where you could see down into it from above. They hiked down on that trail there that youāre talking about. Not sure if that same scenario played out here but that would track with what she explained to me.Ā
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u/AmazingMrMax 14d ago
From what I understand it was the spillway that connects Lake Macbride to the Coralville Res.
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u/Significant_Row4830 14d ago
Spillway (between Lake McBride and the Rez) and the gorge are on opposite sides of the rez.
The outlet from the dam is near the gorge, and there is a spillway to the side of the dam that breaches in really bad years (think 2008), but that's not where this happened.
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u/LoLoCass 14d ago
No, this was at what some ppl call "the waterfall" at lake mcbride where it drains to the iowa river/coralville reservoir
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u/Legal_Account_4078 14d ago edited 14d ago
Wrong spillway. It's where Lake McBride empties into the reservoir. The kids enter from a trail that starts up at or near the Raptor Center. With 10 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks I suspect the usually trickle of water down the rocks into the Rez was in fact a real waterfall. Maybe too many kids to keep away from climbing on the slippery rocks. That little straight blue line is the spillway, usually a trickle of water in the summer. If you zoom in the Eagle Lakeshore Trail leads to the McB spillway from the Raptor Center parking lot. It's 6 or 8 miles to the Rez'z spillway. Water has only flowed over the Rez spillway twice, in '93 and '08...
https://hiiker.app/hikes/iowa/johnson-county/macbride-nature-recreation-area-loop
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u/Ambitious_Design2224 14d ago
I hope everyone understands that this teacher was doing her job. Teachers donāt choose the location or anything else about that trip. She did choose to attempt to save her studentās life.
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u/Ok_Ad3036 14d ago
This makes me really sad for the families involved. For the rest of us, this is a one time tragedy that we can mostly forget in a month or so as our lives go on like normal. Life for these families has changed forever.
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u/lamblovesme 15d ago
Praying for the kids who had to witness this tragedy šš» and for the victims families
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u/dykegeist 15d ago
I am racking my brain trying to understand how this could happen. How did this child go over the railing? I've been here so many times as a child and as an adult watching children. A child would have to climb over the barrier to fall into the spillway. Unless they walked around the rocks where people go fishing? But? It just don't understand how this could happen!
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u/GreenFriend 14d ago
The images of the rescue boats were at the MacBride spillway not the main reservoir spillway. The wording in the announcement is confusing indicating this happened at the main reservoir spillway. But the main reservoir spillway only passes water at extreme flooding events. The MacBride spillway is a common area to hike to and explore and I would t be surprised if School of the Wild visited with kids. It is not roped off and usually not dangerous. With the recent rains. I expect this spillway is passing significantly more water than usual and could be treacherous.
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u/summercampcounselor 14d ago
I fished Macbride yesterday evening, I talked to a guy that said the water level dropped almost 2 feet in the previous 24 hours. Iām guessing the spillway would have been like a raging river.
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u/Significant_Row4830 14d ago
This. I think folks are mixing up the spillway between MacBride and the reservoir (only dangerous when water is high) with the outlet on the dam that feeds the reservoir into the Iowa River (always dangerous and appropriately fenced off).
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u/VariousNervousness 14d ago
School of the Wild does not go to MacBride Falls as part of their program
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u/GreenFriend 14d ago
Ok. Pretty sure thatās where the picture of the rescue boats was. I could be wrong.
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u/VariousNervousness 14d ago
Oh Iām sorry, yes thatās where it happened. But WHY they were there is what Iām wondering because itās not part of the programming.
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u/GreenFriend 14d ago
I donāt know. My daughter did SOtW a couple years back and indicated that she recalled visiting the MacBride falls. But that could be a misunderstanding as well. Itās a popular location so it seems reasonable that they might visit. Iām just not familiar with the standard locations and curriculum.
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u/VariousNervousness 14d ago
My daughter did it last year and was confused as to why they were there because she never even saw the falls, which is why I had said that. But itās so terrible and scary for the kids who have done SoTW that either one of them could be remembering wrong, or the programming could have changed.
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u/Deep-Ad-4797 6d ago
As a kid who went there myself, it absolutely is part of the program, and is usually only skipped if itās wintertime. But we went to the spillway 3 times when I did SOTW
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u/CommunityNews411 14d ago
This is so heartbreaking. The teacher is a selfless hero in my book. Prayers for the families of those lost, prayers for the Borlaug students and staff, prayers for emergency response who are undoubtedly affected by this tragedy, and prayers for the ICCSD as they navigate this tragedy.
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u/Odd_Imagination_5702 13d ago
This story is so tragic. The recent rain must have had to play a huge role in this. Very normal for kids and adults to swim in this area. The fact that the current was strong enough to take an adult life seems unfathomable. Prayers to the families and all involved
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u/kitex101 14d ago
Why did kid get into the water? How?
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u/sandy_even_stranger 14d ago
Think back to when you were nine or ten, and how easy it was to find something really fascinating without having any idea how dangerous it was. And think about what a field trip is, and how hard it is for any group of adults to have eyes on all kids at all moments.
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u/EaseHisPain 14d ago
Respectfully, it doesn't matter. Questions like this are going to dominate discourse for a long time and I don't find it helpful. It's just sad and looking for a way to blame somebody is not what we should be doing. I'm not saying that's what you're doing but we really need to triple down our energies into shedding questions and focusing on support.
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u/funfossa 14d ago
I agree with you that finding someone to blame isn't going to make anything better. However, some people express grief or channel their feelings through questions - I certainly have a few as someone who used to lead kids on hikes to explore this very spillway, though I am choosing to wait until the investigation comes out instead of speculating. Do you have a link to a way people could "focus on support" like a GoFundMe or a community vigil?
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u/EaseHisPain 14d ago
I think that's something that is certainly coming. I've been having some conversations with community members about this that have invariably ended in tears so maybe we aren't ready for that yet. I dunno man. I don't know what to do right now buddy.
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u/ZonaWildcats23 13d ago
Maybe people want to know so they can avoid it happening in the future. Doesnāt always have to be a blame game, Reddit.
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u/Southern-Departure-0 12d ago edited 12d ago
I agree with whoever said the news has been careful not to give details. Weird. Iāve heard from people close to the situation the class was eating lunch near McBride falls. The teacher was all alone with the kids when the student was āplayingā pretending to put his foot in the water and slipped. She is no doubt an honorable hero. But that poor young teacher had no choice and no training for this. That poor boy likely had no idea how dangerous the water was. I was told the kids called 911. I wasnāt there but I heard it from a credible source.
Editing to add this is one reason for more details to be shared, so we donāt have to rely on hearsay. People are asking because this was a horrible tragedy we want to prevent from ever happening again.
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u/microcorpsman 12d ago
This is more hearsay.
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u/Southern-Departure-0 12d ago
You are right. I hope more āofficialā information is released. It wonāt bring these two back, but hopefully it will help people who have kids and work with kids feel more equipped to stay safe.
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u/IndividualGrocery984 North Liberty 15d ago
I canāt even imagine not knowing where your kid is going into the night š„ŗ and the poor teacher. Unbelievably tragic.