Canadian officials rescued about 1,500 people Sunday after strong westerly winds whipped their inflatable rafts off course during an annual float trip on the St. Clair River between MI and Ontario and sent them across the border, according to media reports.
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Baljeu said the winds Sunday were gusty, and a sudden thunderstorm could have been disastrous.
High winds brought them to a number of points along the Canadian shore near Sarnia, Ontario.
“All these people came over her, unintentionally, and none of them had passports or money”.
“It was a bit of a nightmare, but we got through it”, Mr Clarke said.
“It’s something you do to get bragging rights”, floater Nancy Tatar reportedly said. “They waited in long lines, cold, wet and exhausted, but they all got home safely”.
“They have the right to do that, and we have little mechanism to stop it”, said Mike Brown of the Canadian Coast Guard.
Some rafts also deflated requiring some rescue work from the Canadian Coast Guard and federal and provincial police.
About 1,500 participants in the annual float – an event often lubricated by alcohol – wound up stranded on the Ontario side of the river. Another jet ski pulled her group within swimming distance of the USA shore and they made it to safety.
The poplar event has no official organiser and according to its detractors poses, “significant and unusual hazards” due to the river’s fast-moving current and participants’ lack of life jackets.
He said: “We had a little incident”.
A jet skier tried to tow Ms. Scaglione’s group back to USA waters, but was stopped after more than 100 people tried to latch on, she said.
“We had to pull a lot of people out of the water and say ‘no, ‘” Garapick told CBC News.
No arrests were made and no one was injured, according to police.
It sounds like everyone’s on their way to safely returning to MI – though they’re probably going to have some fun going back through US customs.
A Canadian Coast Guard vessel assists rafters who were blown into Canadian waters Sunday during the annual Port Huron Float Down on the St. Clair River.
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No one was charged but some revellers received minor injuries on their accidental journey into global waters.
