After warned to "stay off the ice" on Lake Erie, 18 people played on the ice — and got stranded

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Wow, are they going to be surprised when they get the bill for the rescue. That’s gonna be beaucoup $$$.

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Someone from the US can correct me if I’m wrong about this, but they don’t charge for rescues because it discourages people from asking for help they (often) desperately need. That’s the case here, anyway. S&R is fully free and volunteer driven.

The ones here stay shallow, no deeper than their knees based on the conversations I’ve had with folks.

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There are exceptions. Notably, in the desert Southwest (e.g. Arizona) there are a LOT of roads that cross usually-dry arroyos. There are always signs warning motorists to never try to cross them when stormwater is running in them, and of course some do anyway based on brilliant reasoning like, “This is a Jeep!” Mr. Jeep then discovers that his vehicle is not quite in the same class as 40 cm of swift-flowing water and ends up downstream pinned against a stone/tree/abutment.

There are laws in place to charge Mr. Jeep for the lesson in warning-sign reading.

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Next time, use yellow dye on the ice, nobody goes near “yellow snow”.

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With all the talk of snowmobiles being out on the ice flow, it seems to me it was ripe for a hooning hold-mah-beer moment

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You should never trust ice.
This, in fact, is the first commandment.

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image

I hope any toys they took are at the bottom of the lake by now.
Too bad these fools chose to put others at risk because of their own stupid decisions, but that’s pretty normal nowadays… what with all the Drool Rags, Dick Noses & No Maskers walking around.

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Well, there’s always ice, too.

My mom drove slid into the Arkansas River in her car because of “black ice” just outside of downtown Wichita.

But yeah, we all know (or knew) that “one guy”. He’s perennial. :man_shrugging:

I feel bad for the fish dealing with that toxic materials crap.

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Arizona resident here, can confirm. It’s almost always (but not ALL of time) someone who has a big, burly looking truck that was immaculate looking until the flash flood had it’s way with it. (special irony points for the fool in the H3 who thought that the gussied up suburban was invincible)

I can also confirm that the rescue costs are steep, primarily to discourage these sort of shenanigans.

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This year there is not going to be much ice on the great lakes but they have froze over up to 80+% coverage.

Lake St. Clair, my backyard, had a couple hundred cars on it this weekend. That lake is well over 400sq miles.

St. Clair River from Port Huron to Lake St. Clair is pretty well plugged up right now from all the ice coming down from Huron and bottle necking into the South Channel. US and Canadian cutters have been working the river and Lake St. Clair so freighters can still pass.

I happened to have put the drone up today. That’s the St. Clair River this morning. A freighter led by the Samuel Risley(huge Canadian cutter) passed about an hour earlier.

The photo below was also taken this morning of Biscayne Bay, it was docked in town to get supplies and fuel up. They send a tanker to fill it up while it’s working the river.

The link below updates satellite photos daily, on clear days you can really see the ice coverage.

http://coastwatch.glerl.noaa.gov/modis/region_map.html

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And wait until they get the salvage bill. Oh boy.

Oh my gosh, I just read the comments on this article, I’ve seen them before but people think this is fun for the Coast Guard but it’s not. Every time they put the huge chopper up there is risk.

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Lake Erie is really shallow, so that contributes to it freezing over.

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I might even trust that guy. At least he has real experience with ice.

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Only a warning? That’s just a suggestion! /s

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The More You Know

And remember kids, when the Coast Guard comes to pluck you from the ice floe, ALL of your toys stay behind.

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clap lol GIF

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So, am I right in assuming those ATVs and snowmobiles were abandoned out there on the ice? Fingers crossed they don’t leak a bunch of toxic crap when they sink, but of course also that the owners never get them back. Consider it a stupidity fine.

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When hiking in Iceland 10 years ago, we rented some big ass 4×4.
It was my first time driving off-road and sometimes had to wade rivers.
The safe(r) wade points were often clearly indicated, but it was always a nerve shaking experience: the steering, normally comfortably soft, became so heavy that the first time I thought the servo failed.
Any change in direction or speed required a lot of effort and care and you felt that putting the wheels in the wrong place would have meant being swiped away.

Moreover, even extended insurance did not cover wading accidents.

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We did a lot of that in my family, back before the yahoos ruined crown land off-road sight seeing for everyone. Rivers are the most dangerous moments, without a doubt. I’ve flooded my ignition halfway across a rager that was up to the doors. Stood there for an hour waiting for it to dry to make sure it would start and I didn’t kill the battery trying to restart it hundreds of miles from town (and this was before cellphones). When I got home I got to spend a few hours changing the oil in all the gearboxes because when the differentials and transfer case sit too long in the water, they cool off and the vacuum created by that pulls water into the vent tubes, ruining the oil. I’ve sliced up tires on sharp rocks on the bottom that you couldn’t see, etc. Our worst moment was getting too deep in my dad’s Blazer. The water was up to the windows and at that point the current starts to push you downstream. We opened the doors to let the water run through the truck which gave us our footing back and we made it over. We slept cold and wet that night, I can tell you.

Picking the route is crucial. My dad taught me to read the currents, because the currents map the bottom for you. Most important is learning to spot holes, because it’s all over if you drop a wheel 18” down into a hole halfway across. Much like crossing on horseback or on foot, picking the widest part is most of the work (wide = shallow) and don’t ever, ever stuff your hood into something you can’t see the bottom of.

Honestly, climate change is going to make these old skills useful again. Every time I see footage of city slickers driving their cars through flooded streets, I wish I could go out there and teach them the right way to do it.

I’m constantly amazed by the stuff we did in my youth that I would never have the guts to attempt today. :sweat_smile:

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