MAHOPAC – Donna Massaro is thankful her number wasn’t up!
Last Sunday, the lifelong resident of Mahopac was paddle boarding with several friends and her dog, Joey, on Lake Mahopac when within seconds, a pleasurable afternoon turned nightmarish.
During an interview Tuesday, Massaro who owns the Freight House Café in Mahopac, and who was raised on the lake, explained how a beautiful afternoon became ugly within seconds.
“I heard thunder in the distance and dark ominous clouds appeared. Winds picked up to gale force within seconds and calm Lake Mahopac turned into raging waves that resembled the Atlantic Ocean during a hurricane,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. My friends and I became separated. Joey was knocked off the board and when I lifted him up we caught a wave and the board flipped in the air and hit me in the head. It knocked me below the surface of the water but amazingly I didn’t get a drop of water in my mouth or nose,” she recalled.
Massaro admitted being panic stricken, but she was able to break the vacuum between the board and the water’s surface that was holding her head in place.
I pushed the board upward and it hit me in the head and flew away,” she recalled.
In the interim, her 65-pound pooch managed to swim to an abandoned concrete ramp near the shoreline.
Massaro said one of her friends pushed her in that direction allowing her to crawl up the ramp resulting in cuts and scrapes to her arms and legs.
“I was still in shock from the ordeal when the rain suddenly stopped and the sun came out,” she said.
Massaro said when she was floundering in the lake two boats headed to shore passed her by since they were unable to see her struggling in the waves.
However, once on land, she observed the Carmel Police Department’s Marine Unit nearby and screamed for help.
Officers Vincent Serio and Anthony Bambach were on patrol when they heard Massaro’s cries.
When reuniting Tuesday, Officer Serio explained, “We were conducting a check of the lake when we heard someone shouting for help. We located a person just off the rocky shoreline.”
The officers tossed Massaro a line while grabbing the dog by the handle of its life vest and hoisted it into the boat. They guided Massaro to the stern of the boat and then deployed the boat’s ladder and helped her on board.
Massaro called herself a “lucky woman. Thank God the officers came along when they did. I hate to think what the outcome would have been if I was not wearing my lifejacket.”
The storm was one of several microbursts during the past couple of weeks that resulted in strong winds, torrential rains, downed trees and utility lines knocking out electric power to scores of local residents.
