Two dramatic helicopter rescues captured on video
On consecutive days, a helicopter aided a rescue operation on different Lake Superior shores.
The Minnesota Aviation Rescue Team rescued an injured hiker near Split Rock Lighthouse on Monday, airlifting the 61-year-old woman to a waiting ambulance after she dislocated a hip in a rugged area of the state park. She was then taken to St. Marys Hospital in Duluth for treatment of the non-life threatening injury.
The hiking trail was too rugged and remote for rescuers on the ground to evacuate the woman safely and quickly, Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials told Minnesota Public Radio. The helicopter team arrived from St. Paul in an hour and 15 minutes.
A crew member filmed the airlift with a helmet camera:
Helicopter Rescue at Split Rock
On Tuesday night, the U.S. Coast Guard rescued two people and a dog near Sand Island in Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. According to the news release:
At 7 p.m. CST, a search-and-rescue coordinator from Coast Guard Sector Sault Sainte Marie responded to a mayday call over VHF-FM radio channel 16 from the operator of a 29-foot sailboat reporting that his boat was taking on water and the boat was being pushed by winds and would run aground soon. The boat operator relayed his position in Lake Superior to the Coast Guard and said there were two people and a dog aboard the boat.
One passenger, who fell overboard and swam to shore, was picked up by a response boat. (Fortunately, the passenger was wearing a life jacket.) High winds, large waves and shallow water prevented the rescue team from reaching the second passenger, still on the sailboat.
Then the air rescue team arrived and lifted the man and his dog to safety:
Helicopter Rescue at Sand Island
A crew from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City hoists a man and his dog after the man’s sailboat lost power and ran aground near Sand Island, Wisconsin, in Lake Superior on Tuesday, October 6.
Senior Chief Bill Davidson, who was aboard one of the response boats, says, “In the weather conditions we experienced out there, it was a very difficult rescue to perform, but the crews handled it flawlessly. We train for situations like this every day, and it is a great feeling to carry out a rescue where lives are saved.”
University of Minnesota Press
The Land of Dreams
“The Land of Dreams” is the first book in Vidar Sundstøl’s Minnesota Trilogy.
TV series could be coming to Minnesota’s North Shore
More than a few big-name movie and TV stars have spent time on Lake Superior’s shores, from Brad Pitt to Sigourney Weaver, and the list could soon grow.
Bring Me the News reports this week that Norwegian writer Vidar Sunstøl’s Minnesota Trilogy will be adapted for TV. Set on Minnesota’s rugged North Shore, where Vidar lived for two years, the haunting crime thriller is being developed by Slingshot Global Media. The show has a name – “Minnesota” – but so far no cast, network or shooting location, though producers plan to scout the North Shore soon.
Executives at Slingshot previously helped develop such shows as “House” and “How I Met Your Mother.” The company is currently developing a drama starring Keanu Reeves.
St. Louis River Alliance hopes to boost piping plovers with beach closure
Danielle Kaeding, Wisconsin Public Radio:
A conservation group is seeking to temporarily close a section of Lake Superior beach next spring as part of an effort to encourage endangered shorebirds to return and nest in areas where they once thrived.
Concerns have been expressed that not all of the Wisconsin Point area beaches be closed from public use, but the section of Shafer’s Beach requested for temporary closure is at the end of Lake Shore Road, near the eastern end of Mocassin Mike Road before the point. It would be closed mid-April to mid-June.
Lake level update
Lake Superior's September level was 6 inches above long-term average. The latest update from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers:
The monthly mean water level of Lake Superior in September was 183.69 m (602.66 ft). This is 16 cm (6 in) above the long-term (1918-2014) September average, 1 cm (0.4 in) lower than the September level last year. The net water supplies to Lake Superior were above average in September. The level of Lake Superior declined 2 cm (1 in) last month, while on average the lake falls 1 cm (0.4 in) in September. The Lake Superior level at the beginning-of-October is 15 cm (6 in) above average, 3 cm (1 in) below the level recorded a year ago at this time, and 47 cm (18.5 in) above its chart datum level.
The Lake’s level should continue its seasonal decline this month, but is expected to remain 4 to 6 inches above average.
+ Reporting on the Great Lakes need for icebreakers, Brady Slater for the Duluth News Tribune: “Heavy icebreakers are incredibly expensive and suddenly in high demand. But the race to fulfill one national prerogative has yet to affect more regionalized desires along the Great Lakes.”
+ Brady also penned a story about the final journey of the 111-year-old steamship J.B. Ford.
+ Minnesota Public Radio’s Dan Kraker reported on how a federal appeals court ruling will require the EPA to rewrite its ballast water regulations for Great Lakes ships.
+ SooToday’s Darren Taylor has an update on the development of the Port of Algoma, a deepwater port proposal for Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. A final report on the project will be released in a few weeks; construction could start next year.
+ Video from WDSE-WIRT’s “The PlayList” on a Lake Superior Magazine contributor: Meet photographer Jamie Rabold, light painter.
+ CBC News: The future of Red Rock, Ontario.
+ Daniel Kelly for FishSens Magazine follows how acoustic tagging will help the Red Cliff tribal fish hatchery track how its released coaster brook trout use Lake Superior.
+ Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, donations boxes are part of the effort to bring refugee families to the city, reports David Helwig for SooToday.
+ This one’s for the geology geeks: “Boulders of unique Nickel-copper sulfide rock with platinum and other rare elements—from the Eagle Mine north of Marquette—are now on public display in the lobby of the Dow Environmental Sciences and Engineering Building.”