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Sheriff: ‘Idiotic’ for them to be fishing in warming weather, thinning ice

OAK HARBOR, Ohio – A miles-wide ice floe broke away Saturday from Lake Erie’s shoreline, trapping 135 ice fishermen, one of whom fell into the water and later died. A local sheriff called the fishermen’s actions — given warming temperatures and the fragile ice — “idiotic.”  Many of the fishermen were plucked from the ice by rescuers who glided along in air boats.

On Saturday morning, fishermen had used wooden pallets to bridge a crack in the ice so they could go out farther on the lake. But temperatures rose into the 40s, and the planks fell into the water when the ice shifted, stranding the fishermen about 1,000 yards offshore.

The person who died fell into the water while searching with others for a link to the shoreline, Ottawa County Sheriff Bob Bratton said. Others tried CPR before the person was flown to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said.

A second fisherman went into the frigid water when he tried to drive his ATV over a small crack in the ice, Lanier said. A rescue boat pulled him out within a few minutes, and he was brought to shore and wrapped in blankets. The man was not treated at a hospital and went home.

“We get people out here who don’t know how to read the ice,” Bratton said. “What happened here today was just idiotic. I don’t know how else to put it.”  Norb Pilaczynski, of Swanton, Ohio, disagreed. “We were in no danger,” he said. “We knew there was enough ice out there.”  Several Coast Guard ships and helicopters were sent to rescue the people from the ice floe. The Coast Guard initially said up to 500 appeared trapped, but later revised that to 134 people rescued and one death.

Mike Sanger of Milwaukee said the crack had been tighter earlier in the morning. “I was told the lake was froze all the way across,” said Sanger, 51. “I didn’t think the lake could go anywhere.”  Ice on western sections of Lake Erie was up to 2 feet thick Saturday, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Randel said. The ice cracked as temperatures rose and winds of up to 35 mph pushed on the ice.

When fishermen realized late Saturday morning that the ice had broken away, they began to debate the best way off, Sanger said, adding that no one appeared to be too scared. Some chose to sit and wait for authorities, while others headed east in search of an ice bridge.  Some managed to get to land on their own by riding their all-terrain vehicles about five miles to where ice hadn’t broken away.  Sanger said he was rescued after about an hour by one of several private charter air boats that pulled up and offered rides.

‘Heck of a city out there’

Ice fisherman who regularly visit the lake have said this winter’s thick ice has lured more people to the lake. The numbers of ice fishermen has been unprecedented, said Oak Harbor resident Peter Harrison, who has lived on the shore for 40 years.  “There was a heck of a city out there for the last week and a half, two weeks,” the 71-year-old said.

Bratton said he discussed possible rescue plans with his colleagues on Friday after meteorologists forecast higher temperatures for the weekend.  Even in cold temperatures, the ice in western Lake Erie is often unsafe because of currents that can easily cause the ice to shift.

Ohio Division of Wildlife spokeswoman Jamey Graham said the state annually warns fishermen that there’s no such thing as “safe ice.” And authorities along the lake are trained for these type of rescues.  “You have to know the weather. You have to know how to read the ice,” Bratton said. “It doesn’t take much for this to break.”

ATVs still on ice
Bob Bochi said their group of friends remained calm during the ordeal because the ice around them was about 14 to 18 inches thick.

Sanger said his biggest disappointment is that his vehicle is still floating in the middle of the lake, meaning he can’t fish on Sunday as planned. Other all-terrain vehicles also were still stranded on the ice.  “We’ll go swimming for it this spring,” said Bochi, 54.  Such strandings happen every winter, but rarely are so many ice fishermen caught on one floe.

The rescue operation cost thousands of dollars and pulled emergency responders away from other duties, Bratton said. None of the fishermen would likely be forced to cover the cost of rescue operations, said Chief Petty Officer Robert Lanier, a Coast Guard spokesman.  “To the best of my knowledge, they didn’t break any laws,” he said. “Ice fishing is a culture here on the Great Lakes.”

CANEYVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky’s governor warned it will be “a long haul” before life returns to normal after last week’s deadly ice storm, even as crews fitfully restored power and cleared debris in the state’s two largest cities.

Officials in Lexington and Louisville reported progress, and Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry deactivated the city’s Emergency Operations Center on Sunday evening after a sharp drop in the number of homes without electricity.

Residents in more remote areas, particularly in western Kentucky, are looking at a more uncertain future shivering in homes without electricity and heat. Thousands of National Guard troops, some wielding chainsaws, cleared out debris-ridden communities and rolled through neighborhoods in Humvees to deliver chili and stew rations to relieved residents.

“The kids were looking out the windows and yelling, ‘Yay! We’re saved!’” said Bryan Bowling, 30, who’s been hunkering down with 18 people next to a fireplace inside his generator-powered home in rural Grayson county, some 90 miles southwest of Louisville.

“It’s just good to know that people care,” said Bowling, who has a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old.

Kentucky was hit hardest by the winter blast, which has been blamed for more than 40 deaths in nine states from the Ozarks to Appalachia. Officials confirmed at least 16 deaths in Kentucky, most from traffic crashes, hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning from improperly used generators.

Arkansas, Indiana and other states lashed by the storm were also working to recover. Crews in Arkansas worked to rebuild parts of the system to restore power to some 130,000 customers, and nearly 25,000 homes and businesses in Indiana remained without power.

At its height, the storm knocked out power to 1.3 million customers from the Southern Plains to the East Coast. More than 700,000 of those were in Kentucky — a state record — but by Sunday night, that figure had dropped to less than half that. Still, it could be weeks before some people have power again.

“It’s going to be a long haul for us,” Gov. Steve Beshear said Sunday as he toured hard-hit areas in and around Elizabethtown. “We’ve thrown everything we have at it. We’re going to continue to do that until everyone is back in their homes and back on their feet.”

By Sunday night, 93 of Kentucky’s 120 counties along with 71 cities had declared a state of emergency, according to Monica French, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Division of Emergency Management.

The 4,600 soldiers Beshear ordered on duty, including his entire Army National Guard, swept through the state distributing food and water, removing fallen trees, providing security and checking houses in hard-to-reach areas.

In Hardinsburg, one door-to-door check of houses without electricity is being credited for saving the lives of an elderly couple. The Kentucky National Guard said in a press release that two airmen visited the couple’s home Sunday and found the wife apparently confused and the husband complaining of nausea.

Both were treated and released at a hospital. Authorities said carbon monoxide levels were more than twice what is considered lethal, and blamed the poisoning on a faulty gas furnace.

Diana Burba was among thousands of people who received cases of bottled water from the National Guard. Burba has no power, and she can’t drink the muck coming out of her faucet.

“It’s like muddy water comes out,” Burba said in her Bonnieville mobile home.

“You don’t know how much you depend on it,” she said of amenities like clean water and electricity. “When you don’t have it, life kind of halts.”

The troops, utility workers and good-natured civilians took advantage of temperatures near 50 across much of the region to make headway on repairs. The National Weather Service warned the melt could cause some flooding, but temperatures could dip back into the 20s and teens by Monday night.

Still, the governor praised the resilience of residents in dire need, even as they faced the prospect of a long thaw.

In the town of Clinton, tucked in the tip of western Kentucky, Spc. Michael Hagan had yet to find a person in need of help after four hours of searching, but he said he’d keep knocking on doors.

“I told my sergeant if I have to walk one more hill, my feet are going to fall off,” said the 23-year-old guardsman, who returned from 18 months in Iraq in December. “But it’s good to be sure people are all right.”

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KY guardsmen cut through trees downed by ice storm that’s frozen state for nearly a week

National Guard troops swinging chain saws made their way into isolated Kentucky communities Sunday to check on residents walloped by a winter storm that Gov. Steve Beshear called the biggest natural disaster ever to hit the state.

Some 4,600 guardsmen fanned out across Kentucky to distribute food and water, remove fallen trees, go door-to-door in hard-hit areas and provide security in communities that have been evacuated.

With high temperatures well into the 40s through the weekend, much of the ice that had clung to buildings, power lines, trees and roads has disappeared. And another winter storm that had been forecast to hit Monday apparently will bypass the state.

“Hopefully we will dodge the bullet,” Beshear said. “We’re keeping a watchful eye on that.”

Kentucky was the hardest-hit by the ice storm that paralyzed wide areas from the Ozarks through Appalachia early last week. The storm wrapped a large part of Kentucky in an inch-thick mantle of ice that shattered utility poles, toppled trees and drove thousands from frigid homes to shelters, and the state had a long way to go toward recovery — authorities said it could be weeks before power was restored in some spots.

More than 400,000 Kentucky homes and businesses still lacked electricity Sunday, down from more than 700,000, a state record. Officials told those still shivering in dark, unheated homes to seek safe refuge in motels and places with power or generators.

“Too many people are trying to tough it out at home,” Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo said.

The storm that began in the Midwest has been blamed or suspected in at least 42 deaths, including nine in Arkansas, six each in Texas and Missouri, three in Virginia, two each in Oklahoma, Indiana and West Virginia and one in Ohio. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning.

Finding fuel — heating oil along with gas for cars and generators — was a struggle for those trying to tough it out at home. Hospitals and other essential services took priority.  Next

MURRAY, Ky. – In some parts of rural Kentucky, they’re getting water the old-fashioned way — with pails from a creek. The creative are flushing their toilets with melted snow.

At least 42 people have died, including 11 in Kentucky, and conditions are worsening in many places days after an ice storm left about a million customers still in the dark from the Plains to the East Coast. And with no hope that the lights will come back on soon, small communities are frantically struggling to help their residents.

On Friday, one county put it bluntly: It can’t.

“We’re asking people to pack a suitcase and head south and find a motel if they have the means, because we can’t service everybody in our shelter,” said Crittenden County Judge-Executive Fred Brown, who oversees about 9,000 people, many of whom are sleeping in the town’s elementary school.

Local officials were growing angry with what they said was a lack of help from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In Grayson County, about 80 miles southwest of Louisville, Emergency Management Director Randell Smith said the 25 National Guardsmen who have responded have no chain saws to clear fallen trees.

“We’ve got people out in some areas we haven’t even visited yet,” Smith said. “We don’t even know that they’re alive.”

Smith said FEMA has been a no-show so far.

“I’m not saying we can’t handle it; we’ll hand it,” Smith said. “But it would have made life a lot easier” if FEMA had reached the county sooner, he said.

‘Some limitations’ in FEMA aid
FEMA spokeswoman Mary Hudak said some FEMA personnel already are in Kentucky working in the state’s emergency operations center and that more will be arriving in coming days. Hudak said FEMA also has shipped to 50 to 100 generators to the state to supply electricity to facilities like hospitals, nursing homes, and water treatment plants.

Hudak said travel is still dangerous in some areas and communications are limited.

“We have plenty of folks ready to go, but there are some limitations with roads closed and icy conditions,” she said.

From Missouri to Ohio, thousands were bunked down in shelters, waiting for the power to return. Others are trying to tough out the power outage at home, using any means they can to get basics like drinking water, heat and food. Lori Clarke was stuck at home in the western Kentucky town of Marion with trees blocking the road out. She trudged more than half a mile through snow and ice carrying 5-gallon buckets to bring drinking water for her horses and dogs and to flush her toilet.

“When you live out in the country, you just shift into survival mode,” she said.

Even for those who wanted to leave, it wasn’t possible. The one gas station in Marion that was up and running was able to supply gasoline to emergency vehicles only until another delivery of gasoline arrived Friday. Only half of that gas was made available to the public, and there was a $10 limit.

Linda Young, who is staying the town’s shelter, said her car only had enough gas in it to get around Marion. Even if she had gas, there was nowhere to go — all of her relatives in other parts of Kentucky also were hit by the ice storm.

“For right now, this is the best we can do, so this is where we’re at,” said Young, as she sat on a mattress with her 9-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.

By midafternoon water service had been restored to the city of Marion thanks to a generator, while efforts continued to restore service to the outlying county, Police Chief Ray O’Neal said. Residents were being told to boil the water before drinking it.

CONTINUED : More trouble as ice melts