USCG, Good Samaritans Rescue 5, Searching For 1 In Lake Michigan

The Coast Guard and two good Samaritan boaters rescued five boaters, Saturday evening, from southern Lake Michigan, but are still searching for one missing person.

The names of the boaters rescued and the missing person are not being released by the Coast Guard, and there is no Coast Guard imagery for this case.

At about 6:30 p.m., a rescue crew aboard a 45-foot response boat from Coast Guard Station Michigan City, Indiana, responded to a report from La Porte, Indiana, 911 dispatch of six people in distress one and a half miles off the shore of the Michigan City Lighthouse. Upon arriving at the scene, the rescue crew pulled three adults out of the water and good Samaritan boaters on-scene pulled two more people out of the water.

Coast Guard rescue crews aboard 25-foot and 45-foot response boats from Station Michigan City, a Dolphin helicopter from Air Facility Muskegon, Michigan, and various local responders are still searching for the sixth person.

The six people reportedly jumped off their boat into the water to escape the heat, but then their boat started drifting away and they could not get back to it. None of the people in the water were reportedly wearing life jackets. Other boaters in the vicinity notified search-and-resuce authorities. The water temperature in southern Lake Michigan is 45 degrees.

The Coast Guard reminds people on the water to remember that, following a long and cold winter season, the Great Lakes water temperature is much lower than normal for this time of year. An average person submerged in 45 degree water only has about 30 minutes before becoming hypothermic.