Apparently a boat parade held for Donald Trump in Austin, Texas ended in disaster when some of the boats sank during the event.
KVUE reports that the Travis County Sheriff’s Office responded to “many boats in distress” during the Lake Travis Trump Boat Parade, where several swamped boats needed to be rescued.
“I can confirm that we responded to many emergency calls for boats in distress during the parade,” a spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff’s Office told BuzzFeed News. “Several boats did sink. I’m not able to give exact numbers.”
People began reporting the sinking boats to the Citizen app around 1:20 p.m. on Saturday, with the Sheriff’s Office later verifying that some boats were indeed in distress. There were no reported injuries.
The Trump supporters got together on the lake for a parade that would take place from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. CT, according to its Facebook event page. The event allowed “boats of all shapes and sizes” to take part in the parade, which promised that skydivers would jump from a helicopter “with smoke and flags flying.” While it isn't clear how many boats participated in the parade, over 2,600 people said they would be attending.
After watching the parachute jumpers, the boats were going to line up and sail west, turning around at Point Venture and ending back at Emerald Point. There have been similar parades in Florida, Minnesota, New Jersey, and California.
Organizer Pacey Chynow told The Austin American-Statesman that the police knew about the event, and she anticipated it would be peaceful. She added that the goal was to show support for Trump, rather than raise money for his reelection campaign.
