The volunteer members of the Jasper County Emergency Corps are being credited with possibly saving the lives of two boaters in the wake of an approaching storm on Monday afternoon on nearby Lake Sam Rayburn. The members of the rescue group were dispatched to the area of the Public Boat Ramp and Rattlesnake Island on the south side of the lake, shortly after 1:00 pm, after emergency dispatchers at the Jasper County Sheriff's Department received a call from pleading for help. Emergency Corps President Billy Williford said he and others arrived at the location to find Cindy Jefferson stranded on a twenty-two foot pontoon boat as it drifted west of the island and her husband Martin Boudreaux clinging to his life by hanging on to a piece of lumber not far away. Williford said Boudreaux, was rescued from the water and pulled aboard a boat and Jefferson was also soon rescued from the boat. Williford said the couple told he and others that they were at Rattlesnake Island when the strong winds of the approaching thunderstorm developed. They said the wind quickly carried the boat away from shore with Jefferson who did not know how to start the engine of the vessel still on board. Williford said that as the boat kept drifting further away from the bank, Boudreaux jumped into the water and begin to swim toward the boat, but was not able to catch up with it, forcing him to cling to the piece of lumber.
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