Dozens a Fishermen Rescued

[Lee Borgersen]

           Dozens of Ice Fishermen Rescued after Minnesota Storm
 
 February 25, 2014
 
One angler claims that snowdrifts as high as seven feet covered his ice house on last week.

  more.....

As many as 100 anglers in Minnesota’s Upper Red Lake finally left the ice on Sunday after being stranded for three days in a blizzard. According to KSTP, employees from the nearby JR’s Resort were able to finally reach the ice fishermen after a storm cut them off on Thursday. Trapped roughly eight miles from solid land in 45 ice houses, some anglers said they did not sleep. Instead, they weathered the storm by fishing.

Angler Jason Strom tells KSTP that the three days he spent on Upper Red Lake was some of the best fishing he ever had, although he is relieved to be off the ice.

“I wasn’t sure we were going to make it off the ice alive, it was that scary,” he said.

KFGO reports that snowdrifts between four and seven feet high piled up around the ice houses during the course of the storm. The combined weight of the snow was so heavy, it began to break the ice. Some children and older anglers were taken to safety by snowmobiles, but the snow eventually grew so severe that the lake became impassable. Some parts of the lake became flooded as the weight of the snow broke through the ice, endangering the fishing houses as well. According to WDAY, rescuers decided that it was too dangerous to risk plows on the ice.

“Our house was almost underneath the (snowdrift) the wind was blowing so bad,” Strom said.

You can see an interview with Strom below:

Video also here:

http://kstp.com/news/stories/S3336858.shtml?cat=1 

[Boar]

I  know how they feel, it wasnt near as bad on leech this past weekend, but we were stranded from thursday till saturday when I finlly dug us out, the plow berms an the house weight an the drift weight, alollowed water to flood to up underneath my house to the floor, sunday when we popped the seal on the house it flooded like an artisian an by the time I was done cranking i was in a foot of water. we also had alot of unsually loud cracking also under our house, not the normal thoom thoom thoom sound like it dose when ice is being made. this was loud CRACK! wish i could post pics.

[The General]

Here ya go.