Safety on ice

Dec. 30, 2007

If ever the claim for the existence of guardian angels needed validation, it would be the life-saving rescue of Billy McKeon in the icy waters of Lake Michigan on February 20, 2007. While walking on the Frankfort breakwater, the 45-year-old Mckeon slipped off the icy surface. Unable to climb up onto the ice, he floundered in the 33-degree waters of Lake Michigan. His fate all but certain lay in the hands of guardian angels.
His guardian angels, however, turned out not to be a celestial form, but rather an earth-bound good Samaritan. Carol Stack told Roland Halliday, editor of the Benzie Record Patriot, that she was walking her dog on the beach: “I saw this person out on the breakwater and all of a sudden he disappeared.”
“I stopped and I didn’t see him come back in sight. Then I heard him yell. I didn’t have my cell phone with me, and I ran to the house to call the Coast Guard. I heard him yell four times,” said Stack.
Stack said she is only one of a few people who live along the beach who stay there in winter. At about the same time Stack was making her call, a man dropped by Station Frankfort to report a person had fallen off the breakwater.
The Station Frankfort crew responded at 2:09 p.m.. It took the four-man rescue team approximately 12 minutes to reach the location of Mckeon.
“We proceeded at a fast walk,” said Mike Davis, the team leader.
The crew’s ice rescue gear included boots with cleats that provided transition on the slippery ice. The entire length of the breakwater lay shrouded in ice caked on by waves.
Davis figures McKeon fell in approximately 1700 feet out from the base of the breakwater. “We couldn’t see him, but we could hear him calling ‘help’, ‘help’…”
The rescue crew followed his cries and spotted McKeon in the water at the base of a slope of ice. “He was in the water on the lake side, and we tossed him a life sling,” said Davis. The four coasties could not pull Mckeon up and over a shelf of ice that extended out over the water’s edge. Time was rapidly ticking against the rescue efforts. “I told him to hold on and keep his arms close to his body,” said Davis. Except for tennis shoes, the victim was wearing all cotton wear: jacket, pants, shirt.
Even if the Coast Guard and the Frankfort fire department ice rescue team, which had also responded, could muster up a boat to reach Mckeon, the time it would take would not be time enough. The time crunch coupled with logistical challenges during cold water ice rescues can leave little room to execute options. Fortunately, Coast Guard air was an option available in this rescue. From the get go, Davis had requested air support from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City, which is located just 40 miles north of Frankfort.
“When we were hovering over the breakwater, I could see our guys and a line running down a slope of ice and over the edge,” said Coast Guard rescue swimmer Noel Hutton. “As the flight mechanic lowered me down, the pilot eased away from the pier. I spotted a man clinging to rocks underneath a shelf of ice.”
“When I reached him I could see he was very hypothermic. Ice was building on his cotton clothing,” said Hutton. The crew hoisted Mckeon aboard the HH-65C helicopter. He was transported to Munson Medical Center in Traverse City and later released.
I asked rescue swimmer Noel Hutton, an Alaskan Coast Guard veteran, how much longer McKeon would have been able to survive, and he estimated around 10 minutes. It was that close. I praised his aircrew for a life saved, and he said, “Thank our guys on the deck. Had they not stabilized the situation until we arrived, it would have all been for naught.”
Good as they are and dedicated as well, they do have limitations, and this rescue found them on the outer limit of those limitations. I asked Mike Davis what should have Mckeon done to help himself.
“Not be out there in the first place,” Davis said.



Ice Safety Tips

By Senior Chief Tom Rau
Last year, during February 2007, Ninth Coast Guard District units, which are located throughout the Great Lakes, have responded to more than 17 search-and-rescue cases where people were in distress on the ice. Three of these cases were fatal. Snowmobile operators, ice fishermen, and others recreating near ice should pay heed to weather forecast calling for temperatures in the mid 30s or 40s. Warming trends, especially during the upcoming month of March, can produce unstable ice. The following ice-rescue survival tips mostly apply to snowmobilers; however, they also apply to anyone who recreates on or near ice.

• Do not operate a snowmobile on ice over water at night.
• If several snowmobilers are operating on ice, they should not run in tandem, but spread out fore and aft, so if one breaks through the ice, the other can assist.
• Carry a length of nylon line with a small weight on the end. This could be used to assist another person who fell through the ice. I prefer the “rescue heaving line”, which is a 70-foot, 3/8-inch braided synthetic line with a flotation ball at the end.
• Should an operator break though the ice, do not accelerate: it could carry you further away from ice into open water and out of reach of help or climbing back onto the ice.
• Carry two ice awl picks attached together with a line you can wear around your neck. Place the awls in an upper pocket so they don’t ride over your neck if you plunge into water. In the water, there’s less chance of losing one or both awls if attached to a line. Should you end up in the water, pick with the awls and kick with your feet to pull yourself onto solid ice.
• Carry a marine radio or cell phone and red flares in a water tight plastic bag and also carry a whistle. Wear a life jacket or flotation suit. At night, carry a strobe light. A hand-held GPS in a water-tight bag could prove to be a life saver. Deploy these devices immediately, before hands grow numb.
• Place reflective tape on your foul-weather suit. Wear full body protective suit with insulation and thermal underwear.
• Always check the weather and ice conditions before any trip out onto the ice. Ice thickness is not consistent.
• Always tell family and friends where you are going and when you are expected to be back - and stick to the plan.
• Use the buddy system. Never go out on the ice alone. If you choose to go out on the ice alone, stay in an area where other people can see you and have the means to summon help.
• Beware! Stable ice can turn unstable in hours. Take special note of warming trends in March. Ice near stream outlets into open water can be unstable.

• And lastly, lay off the alcohol while operating a snowmobile: over the last ten years, 61 percent of Michigan snowmobile fatalities involved alcohol and drugs.