(Port Clinton) US Coast Guard officials say 18 people were rescued from a chunk of ice that broke off Lake Erie over the weekend.
Posted at 7:47 a.m.
Officials said a helicopter from Detroit Air Force Station noticed a group of people on the ice floe near Catawba Island, Ohio around 1 p.m. Sunday, with several all-terrain vehicles searching a path to return to solid ground.
The helicopter lowered a rescue swimmer and began lifting operations while an airboat departed from nearby Marblehead Station, the Coast Guard said.
The helicopter lifted seven people from the ice floe and the airboat rescued four others, officials said. The other seven people were picked up and brought ashore by a Good Samaritan who also had an airboat.
Emergency medical services were ready, but no one needed treatment, the Coast Guard said.
Earlier, authorities urged people to “stay out of the ice on Lake Erie as ice may move away from shore.”
Last week, crews from both Coast Guard stations were also called in to help Catawba Island Volunteer Firefighters rescue seven people from another ice floe.