Another Cruise Ship Drama

Cruise boat nightmare: Dinner and comedy show turns into overnight sleepover after boat is stranded
By Nina Mandell
Daily News Staff Writer
Sunday, December 12th 2010, 12:38 PM

The Showboat Branson Belle was stuck overnight after high winds pushed it ashore.

A relaxing dinner cruise turned into an unwanted sleepover for the more than 600 people stranded on a Missouri lake cruise boat Saturday night.

After setting off on what was supposed to be a dinner cruise and a comedy show on the Showboat Branson Belle, the boat ran into problems after strong winds and problems with its thrusters pushed it against a shoreline, CNN reported.

"We were almost back to the dock, when we heard a couple of loud noises. The comedian said something funny and we all laughed," Jim Wellborn, a passenger on the boat, told CNN.

But then the captain interrupted the show to tell them something had gone very wrong and they would be stuck for a little while.

The 640 crew members and guests on board weren't harmed and had heat, electrical power, food and beverages on board, a spokesman for the boat company told reporters.

Nine passengers with pre-existing medical conditions - including two who reportedly had seizures on board - were rescued early from the boat, which was supposed to be on water for only a few hours when it set out to sea around 4 p.m. on Saturday.

The rest of the passengers on the Showboat Branson Belle finally began disembarking around 9 a.m. Sunday morning after spending the night on the cruise ship.

To rescue the passengers, response crews built a temporary road and ramp to get to the stranded boat, which gained enough propulsion to push itself to an inlet cove, local television station KSFX reported.

A Missouri lake cruise boat set out to sea? Cruise boat nightmare? No icebergs or giant waves, no collision with another ship? Sounds like they disembarked into a cornfield and onto a hay wagon which was towed back to civilization by a large John Deere tractor. Where was the Coast Guard?

News from my Home Town

Lansing man expected to face charges in connection with shots fired at house
Melissa Domsic • mdomsic@lsj.com • December 7, 2010

LANSING - A Lansing man is expected to face charges after police say he shot at a house Monday afternoon.
The man, 25, drove a blue four-door Buick to a house in the 1100 block of East Main Street and fired numerous rounds from a handgun at the front door of the home at about 12:50 p.m. Monday, said Lansing police Lt. Noel Garcia.
People in the house returned fire through the closed door, he said. There was no evidence of injuries.
The man fled by car and led police on a short chase before officers stopped the pursuit, Garcia said. Officers eventually caught the man as he fled on foot in the 1100 block of Walsh Street.
Police said he will faces charges in relation to the incident.
No one was at the house when officers returned. The homeowner was cooperative and was not at the house during the incident, Garcia said. The incident remains under investigation.

Fired numerous rounds from a handgun at the front door of the home? People in the house returned fire through the closed door? On a Monday afternoon? The house was on East Main Street? Main Street? Sounds like the Old West.