WASHINGTON (AP) -- High winds that swept through the Washington area early Saturday afternoon capsized nearly two dozen boats. Rescue crews pulled more than 40 people from the water at two locations on the Potomac River.
Sailboat races at Hains Point were disrupted when wind gusts associated with a line of showers moved through the Washington, D.C. area around 1:30 p.m.
''Boats started going over in the wind,'' said Kathryn Friedman, a spokeswoman for the District of Columbia Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department. Crews from two of the department's fireboats rescued a total of 20 people. A woman and a girl were taken to hospitals in Virginia for treatment of possible hypothermia.
Less than a half hour later, another high wind gust capsized a dragon boat in the Georgetown Channel not far from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. That incident occurred during the Fourth Annual Dragon Boat festival and Race.
There were 22 people aboard the Chinese style rowing vessel. Two fireboats were joined by a boat from the D.C. Harbor Patrol in an effort to get people out of the chilly Potomac waters.
''We were able to get everybody back to Thompson's Boat House,'' said Sgt. Joe Gentile, a spokesman for the D.C Metropolitan Police Department. The victims were examined for symptoms of hypothermia, but no one required hospitalization. Crews from 29 other dragon boats returned to shore safely.
A meteorologist at the National Weather Service Office in Sterling, Va. said wind gusts as high as 32 mph were recorded at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport as the weather system moved through the area.
