Storm Lake Rotary donates $1,000 to dive team rescue efforts

Sgt. Bill Sankey and Deputy Hesduardo Garcia took a $1,000 check from Storm Lake Rotary for a team built for the kind of calls Buena Vista County hopes never happen: a missing swimmer, a submerged vehicle, or a recovery on icy water that ordinary responders cannot safely reach.

The donation was modest, but the mission behind it is not. The Buena Vista County Sheriff’s Office says the dive and rescue team was created in 2015 and has continued training members ever since to earn rescue certifications. The unit serves all of Buena Vista County and can assist neighboring counties and communities when needed, giving Storm Lake and the rural towns around it a specialized public-safety layer that goes beyond patrol and fire response.

The sheriff’s office lists Sankey as team commander and Chief Chris Cole as team leader, with Garcia among the divers. The roster reflects a multi-agency setup, with personnel drawn from several emergency-service agencies across the county and coordinated closely with county fire departments during rescue or recovery efforts.

That structure matters in a county where water emergencies have repeatedly demanded a large response. In January 2026, area firefighters and law enforcement spent two days in Storm Lake sharpening ice-rescue skills, with departments from Storm Lake, Alta, Sioux Rapids, Sergeant Bluff and Albert City taking part alongside the Iowa Fire Service Training Bureau, Professional Rescue Innovations, Sioux City Fire Rescue and the Buena Vista County Sheriff’s Office. Earlier incidents on Storm Lake in December and January had involved more than 100 emergency workers, a reminder that one call on the ice can quickly stretch across the county.

The need is not hypothetical. A 2019 ice incident on Storm Lake killed a father and his 8-year-old son and hospitalized his two daughters, one of the starkest reminders in recent memory of how quickly a frozen lake can turn deadly. In 2024, the Buena Vista County Sheriff’s Reserves Association bought an emergency ice-rescue sled with more than 550 feet of tethered rope for use by the sheriff’s office and surrounding first responders.

The dive team itself has long depended on community support. When the unit was introduced, a $26,551 donation from the Buena Vista County Community Foundation helped equip it, and earlier reporting said its training included basic open water, advanced open water, rescue diver, search-and-recovery, public safety diver and drysuit certification. A 2020 Rotary Car Plunge promotion also directed most of its proceeds to the dive team and doubled as training during the recovery.

Storm Lake Rotary’s latest check was small in dollar terms, but it backed a county asset that is trained, outfitted and expected to answer when a call on the water turns into a life-or-death recovery.