U.S. News

66 Fishermen Pulled From Suddenly Adrift Wisconsin Ice Floes

CAST AWAY

Coast Guard rescue swimmers were lowered from helicopters to bring the stranded to safety.

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Screenshot from U.S. Coast Guard

Sixty-six fishermen in Wisconsin have been rescued after the massive sheet of ice they were fishing from suddenly broke away into three different floes on Thursday. “People were ice fishing, and the weather changes and warms up enough to release the ice from the shore, and it drifts away,” U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrew McGinnis told Wisconsin’s Door County Pulse. The Coast Guard and other local officials came to the rescue of 66 people who were spread across three locations north of Lake Michigan’s Sturgeon Bay. Helicopters lowered rescue swimmers to the ice floes to bring the stranded fishermen to safety. The rescue effort took more than four hours and there were no injuries reported. “I imagine they all walked out when [the ice] was attached, before someone noticed it wasn’t anymore,” McGinnis said.

Earlier today Air Station Traverse City launched two helicopters to respond to reports of over 60 ice fishermen stranded...

Posted by U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City on Thursday, February 4, 2021
Read it at Door County Pulse