A boating tragedy averted

Feature

To Comment on this article Click Here

Emergency forces, police and Coast Guard work together quickly and efficiently

The fates were with five lucky young men on the Saturday of Easter weekend when their boat was swamped by high waves.

When Ryan Sermon, T. J. LeBlanc, Zach Reidpath, Phil Roedger and 'Chris'  started out from Port Elgin harbour, the day was unseasonably warm and the waters of Lake Huron off the shore were relatively calm.

As many generations before them had, the young men ended up on Chantry Island for a short time but noticed that the winds had begun to pick up and decided it was time to head for shore.

As they headed back and, as anyone who boats in the area's waters realizes, the winds and waves can become treacherous in a very short time and that is precisely what happened on Saturday.

The five young men had just left Chantry Island,  when their boat began to be swamped by the rolling waves.  They continued on until their vessel filled with water and capsized.  The young men, most in their teens, were thrown into the water. 

The owner of the boat, Ryan Sermon, also a trained lifeguard, despite the frigid water, decided to try to swim to shore for help.  The remaining four knew their only chance was to try and swim back to Chantry Island.  Sermon reached shore and was immediately taken to Southampton Hospital suffering from hypothermia while the fate of the remaining four were still unknown.

Coast Guard helicopter brings two of the survivors in

In the meantime, police and rescue services, including the Coast Guard, were alerted as heavy winds continued to buffer rescue sightings from the beach with blowing sand and many residents began combing the beach, fearing the worst.

It wasn't until late in the afternoon that three people  were spotted on Chantry Island by people with high-powered binoculars on shore, but it was still undetermined at that time if all the men were accounted for.

"The water was so cold," said T.J. Leblanc.  "We swam until we couldn't swim anymore and then we realized we were in water near the island where we could actually stand, except our legs and feet were so numb we couldn't feel the bottom.  We managed to get up on the Island but, if it weren't for Phil, we probably would have worse hypothermia.  He told us to take off our clothes right away.  We didn't want to do it 'cause we thought it was crazy to take off clothes that would keep us warm.  We didn't know that the wet clothes were actually making us colder.  Anyway, we did what he told us and then tried to find rags or whatever we would to cover ourselves"

Rescuers begin transporting to Southampton Hospital

The young men were eventually rescued and air- transported by the helicopter to the shore near the Southampton water treatment plant where ambulances and paramedics waited.

From there, the young survivors were taken to Southampton Hospital Emergency.  Each was being treated for hypothermia conditions Saturday night and also had to undergo X-rays due to the battering against the rocks and possible ingestion of water that could cause inflammation.

According to one of the police officers, Tracey Smith, "These young men are incredibly lucky.  This was nothing short of a miracle that not one of them was lost.  A devastating tragedy has been avoided." 

^{for world news, books, sports, movies ...}

Saturday, April 03, 2010