Sucked Under Dam, Texas Man OK

(CBS)  A couple in Texas survived when their boat was sucked under the Tom Miller Dam in West Austin as patrons of a nearby outdoor restaurant looked on in horror.

Dirk Hoekstra of Austin and his companion were boating on Lake Austin Monday when the engine quit on his 16-foot fiberglass craft and the boat was swept up against the 60-foot dam.

The woman, Monica Barnes, was pulled unhurt to safety as she clung to the boat. Hoekstra, 34, was swept out of the boat, through the dam's floodgates and down a 60-foot waterfall to Town Lake. His clothes ripped off during the tumble, Hoekstra swam to shore and summoned help from a nearby apartment. He suffered only scrapes and bruises.

He told KEYE-TV, the CBS affiliate in Austin, that he thought be was going to die. "It was like a horror movie," said Hoekstra.

"I'm pretty beat up, but I'm here," he told the Austin American-Statesman the following day.

Video cameras

were rolling as the boat was sucked under floodgates and completely destroyed. The TV report quoted officials as saying that all that was found of the boat was a 14-by-20-inch piece of wood.

Patrons and staff on the outdoor deck of the Hula Hut restaurant saw events unfold and they summoned emergency squads who rescued Barnes.