By Cole Waterman
mlive.com
PINCONNING TWP, Mich. — Bay County Sheriff’s deputies have rescued another four people after they wound up marooned in the frozen Saginaw Bay.
About 12:50 a.m. on Feb. 7, Bay County Central Dispatch received calls that four men were stranded in the bay about three miles from the Pinconning Boat Launch after one of their four-wheelers broke through the ice. Two of the quartet’s other snowmachines had run out of gas, deputies said.
Dispatchers advised a 49-year-old man and 13-year-old boy had fallen into the water but were able to get out, deputies said. Two more men, ages 50 and 18, managed to avoid falling into the frigid waters. All four are non- Bay County residents.
Deputies deployed their department’s state-of-the-art 1000 Mile Island Airboat. They located the four stranded individuals and brought them back to shore.
The two who had gone into the water were evaluated by paramedics but declined visiting a local hospital, deputies said.
In a roughly 24-hour period beginning Jan. 23, deputies used the airboat to rescue four people from the Saginaw Bay in two separate incidents.
Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham encouraged snowmobilers, ice fishermen, and others who foray onto the Saginaw Bay ice to supply themselves with waterproof flashlights, cellphone chargers, signal flares, and self-rescue ice picks. Such items can be the difference between life and death, he said.
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