150 rescued from ice floe in Lake Erie, 1 death (Forest: 2009, tax)

[Giesela]

I got this off the Michigan board

Sheriff: Stranded fishermen 'should have known better' - CNN.com


(CNN) -- An Ohio sheriff had harsh words for ice fishermen who had to be rescued Saturday after high winds and rising temperatures caused an ice floe to break away and strand about 150 of them on Lake Erie.
More at link

[EarthBound?]

Originally Posted by Giesela

I got this off the Michigan board

Sheriff: Stranded fishermen 'should have known better' - CNN.com


(CNN) -- An Ohio sheriff had harsh words for ice fishermen who had to be rescued Saturday after high winds and rising temperatures caused an ice floe to break away and strand about 150 of them on Lake Erie.
More at link

All 150 of them should be sent a hugh bill for the rescue operation to reimburse the tax payers. Everyone knows that Lake Erie is unstable this time of the year.

[OhioUberAlles]

Originally Posted by SeabeeBolt

All 150 of them should be sent a hugh bill for the rescue operation to reimburse the tax payers. Everyone knows that Lake Erie is unstable this time of the year.

The tax-payers ate the bill for hundreds of thousands of people in New Orleans who didn't want to leave even though they had three to five days of notice that a monster hurricane was likely bearing down on their city.

Why should 150 fishermen, who went onto ice that was several feet thick, be punished? The only thing they did wrong was building a bridge to get further out on the ice. That was a rather foolish thing to do, but they had no way of knowing that a huge ice floe would break off and drift into the lake. There were no advanced forecasts about such a thing.

[dugdogmaster]

Umm.... the National Weather Service, NOAA, and U.S. Coast Guard regularly post weather bulletins about Lake Erie and ice conditions.

[EarthBound?]

Originally Posted by OhioUberAlles

The tax-payers ate the bill for hundreds of thousands of people in New Orleans who didn't want to leave even though they had three to five days of notice that a monster hurricane was likely bearing down on their city.

Why should 150 fishermen, who went onto ice that was several feet thick, be punished? The only thing they did wrong was building a bridge to get further out on the ice. That was a rather foolish thing to do, but they had no way of knowing that a huge ice floe would break off and drift into the lake. There were no advanced forecasts about such a thing.

In some way they did, last week when we were hit by that lake effect snow. There was a 20 X 40 mile wide hole in the ice that was open to allow the the heavy snow fall in the snow belt. That was a big warning that the ice getting thinner. And everyone knows that the ore boats bust the ice on a daily bases, you can't trust the lake waters, it always moving.

And as for the New Orleans comment, I have to give you that one . As Forest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does". I guess you could say that, "they were truly treading on thin ice".

[OhioUberAlles]

Originally Posted by SeabeeBolt

In some way they did, last week when we were hit by that lake effect snow. There was a 20 X 40 mile wide hole in the ice that was open to allow the the heavy snow fall in the snow belt. That was a big warning that the ice getting thinner. And everyone knows that the ore boats bust the ice on a daily bases, you can't trust the lake waters, it always moving.

And as for the New Orleans comment, I have to give you that one . As Forest Gump said, "Stupid is as stupid does". I guess you could say that, "they were truly treading on thin ice".

I'd say that the fishers should have had some sort of idea that going on the ice was risky. I won't fault them for ice-fishing, but I will fault them for going out so far that they had to construct a wood bridge to get across gaps in the ice. The gaps in the ice should have told them something.

[EarthBound?]

Originally Posted by OhioUberAlles

I'd say that the fishers should have had some sort of idea that going on the ice was risky. I won't fault them for ice-fishing, but I will fault them for going out so far that they had to construct a wood bridge to get across gaps in the ice. The gaps in the ice should have told them something.

Yah I know! I have some friends that like to ice fish, I never saw the need for it personally. I wonder who's bright idea it was to construct a bridge and drag it out there anyway. Even Eskimos know better than to venture out on ice when its fractured and moving. Can they spell "DAH"!

[formercalifornian]

Originally Posted by SeabeeBolt

Everyone knows that Lake Erie is unstable this time of the year.

Apparently, everyone doesn't.

[EarthBound?]

Originally Posted by formercalifornian

Apparently, everyone doesn't.

If they were born and raised anywhere near Lake Erie, they would know better. This isn't the Artic Circle we're talking about here, it's the shallowest lake of all five of them.

[formercalifornian]

Well, shame on them for taking such a risk, but at least there was minimal loss of life. I suspect the herd mentality just took over, and they followed the leader, not realizing the leader didn't know what he was doing.