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Only a handful of fishing boats dotted Cruiser s Cove when Sgt. Bret Cline of the Hennepin County Water Patrol navigated the popular Lake Minnetonka party spot last week.
But he knows it will be a different scene over the July 4th weekend, when hot and sunny weather will bring scores of boaters to the bay for drinking and partying.
With 29 drownings already reported on Minnesota s lakes, rivers and pools this year, Cline and other water safety officials are bracing for the same possible deadly combination cited in many of those cases: hot weather, large gatherings and carelessness. When you re looking at the non-boating drownings, it s a wide age range of people who are becoming victims on the water, and it s a wide range of contributing factors, said Lisa Dugan, a boat and water safety coordinator with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. She attributes the increase in drownings to more people being out on the water. An unseaso
With almost 30 drownings already this summer, Minn officials bracing for holiday weekend msn.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from msn.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.