Lake Erie

20 Stories

One Minute They Were Snowmobiling. The Next, They Were Adrift

All were rescued, with no injuries reported, in Lake Erie incident

(Newser) - A group of people snowmobiling near Catawba Island, Ohio, found themselves unexpectedly adrift in Lake Erie when an ice floe separated from land. A helicopter from Air Station Detroit noticed the large group on the floating sheet of ice around 1pm Sunday, looking for a way back to land, and...

On Lake Erie Ice Floe, a Dramatic Mass Rescue

Ice broke free, stranding 46 ice fishermen in Ohio

(Newser) - A sheet of ice holding fishermen on Lake Erie broke loose in windy weather in Ohio on Saturday morning, sending many of them scrambling to safety but leaving nearly four dozen stranded on the floe for three hours more than a mile offshore until emergency crews could rescue them. About...

Lake Erie the Subject of Unusual Ballot Question
Lake Erie the Subject
of Unusual Ballot Question
the rundown

Lake Erie the Subject of Unusual Ballot Question

Residents of Toledo will vote on whether it deserves the same rights as a person

(Newser) - Next week, residents of Toledo, Ohio, will vote on what the New York Times describes as one of the most unusual ballot questions ever to appear in the US—whether to grant Lake Erie the same rights as a human. Specifically, residents will vote on whether to accept the Lake...

His Wife's Body Was Found Tied to Anchor. He Claimed Suicide

It's life in prison for Christopher Leclair

(Newser) - A Pennsylvania man who hoped to shack up with his girlfriend after killing his wife of 25 years will instead be confined to a prison bed for life. Christopher Leclair maintained his innocence even as a judge sentenced him to life in prison without parole on Tuesday, describing the June...

Museum: We're Pretty Sure It's Lake Erie's Oldest Wreck

Lake Serpent schooner that sank in 1829 believed to have been found

(Newser) - Shipwreck hunters who spent eight days this summer unearthing and examining the remains of a schooner in Lake Erie in Ohio think it's most likely a sailing ship that sank nearly two centuries ago, per the AP . That would make the wreckage the oldest ever found in the shallowest...

Shipwreck Found in Lake Erie Might Be Oldest Ever Found There

Searchers think it's the Lake Serpent, which went down in 1829

(Newser) - Shipwreck hunters are planning to excavate around a Lake Erie wreck this summer that they think could be the remains of a schooner that went down nearly two centuries ago. Its size, design, and location point toward it being a sailing ship called the Lake Serpent, which sank in 1829,...

Lake Erie Search for Missing Plane Yields No Clues

Coast Guard says this is now a recovery effort

(Newser) - The disappointing search for a small plane that disappeared over Lake Erie near Cleveland's shores carrying six people has turned into a recovery effort. The US Coast Guard has suspended its search for the plane that vanished shortly after takeoff Thursday night from the city's lakeshore airport, the...

Plane Carrying 6 Disappears Over Lake Erie

No sign of plane in overnight air search

(Newser) - The Coast Guard has found no sign of debris while searching Lake Erie for a small plane carrying three adults and three children that took off from Cleveland, then vanished Thursday night, reports the AP . All passengers attended a Cleveland Cavaliers game before boarding the twin-engine Cessna Citation 525 and...

Mom Drowns in Lake Erie Trying to Save 2 Girls

The girls, including her daughter, are OK

(Newser) - A Buffalo mom tried to save her 11-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old friend after they ran into trouble in the rough waves of Lake Erie, but she ended up drowning herself, WIVB reports. Evans police received a distress call from Wendt Beach just before 7pm yesterday, reports the Buffalo News ...

Toxic Water Actually 'So Routine' in Ohio

Pollution, invasive species, and climate change have all been blamed

(Newser) - Tap water has been declared safe to drink and bathe in again in Toledo, Ohio, but scientists warn that toxic algae blooms could be here to stay. Fertilizer from farms and cattle feedlots are partly to blame for the thick layer of algae choking Lake Erie, the most developed of...

Toledo Mayor: Water Still Unsafe

 Drink Up, Toledo: 
 Water Ban Lifted 
UPDATED

Drink Up, Toledo: Water Ban Lifted

Advisory over toxins is lifted this morning

(Newser) - Toledo's water is OK to drink again after new tests showed that a dangerous toxin was no longer detectable, reports the Toledo Blade . "Our water is safe," Mayor Michael Collins said at a morning news conference. Hours earlier, Collins had kept the ban in place, citing tests...

Guy, 21, Owes $489K After Fake Emergency Call

Danik Kumar was worried he'd sound stupid

(Newser) - When he was 19, Danik Kumar made a distress call that resulted in an unnecessary 21-hour, 70-person search on Lake Erie. The Ohio man, now 21, told emergency workers that, while flying a small plane, he'd spotted four people on a boat sending out flares. Seems that wasn't...

Great Lakes Days Away From Record Ice Cover

Long cold spell excellent for lakes' health

(Newser) - This long, cold winter has created the most ice cover on the Great Lakes in 20 years —and with ice cover usually at its peak in mid-March, there's still time for records to be broken. Lake Superior is now more than 90% covered by ice, reports NBC , and...

Great Lakes Almost Completely Iced Over

They haven't frozen over this much since 1994

(Newser) - It's been so cold for such a long time in the Great Lakes region that the lakes are now almost completely covered with ice for the first time in 20 years. Ice cover has now reached 88% across the five lakes, the most since 1994, when 94% of their...

Lake Erie's Garbage Patch May Be Worst of All

Scientists find concentrations of plastic denser than those in ocean

(Newser) - Huge swaths of plastic floating in the ocean get all the attention as emblems of nasty pollution, but rival patches closer to home in Lake Erie are in some ways worse, reports the Atlantic Cities blog. A new study finds that the lake has dense patches of tiny bits of...

Erie, Ontario Fare Worst in Study of Great Lakes

Lake Superior relatively clean in comparison

(Newser) - A three-year environmental study has produced a color-coded map of the Great Lakes, with Ontario and Erie clearly under the most stress from a hodgepodge of factors, reports the Detroit Free Press . (See the map here .) One big culprit with those two lakes, however, is fertilizer runoff from farms,...

Fishermen Return to Thin Ice
 Fishermen Return to Thin Ice  

Fishermen Return to Thin Ice

Warnings averted a major tragedy

(Newser) - Hundreds of ice fisherman were already back on frozen sections of Lake Erie yesterday less than 24 hours after the rescue of 125 fishermen stranded on a drifting ice floe. Some headed to risky areas where currents can create dangerously thin ice, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Experts warned that...

125 Anglers Saved, 1 Dead on Ice Floe
 125 Anglers Saved, 
 1 Dead on Ice Floe 
updated

125 Anglers Saved, 1 Dead on Ice Floe

(Newser) - Rescue teams saved about 125 fishermen stuck on an ice floe in Lake Erie today, but one died after falling in the water, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports. Authorities had warned northern Ohio fishermen that high winds with unseasonably warm air could melt ice and send it adrift. Fishermen reached...

Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Water

Sunbelt lusts for Great Lakes' water, but eight states vow to keep it

(Newser) - You'd think the warm weather and easy living would make the West and South leave Frostbelters alone. But no, they want what that frost is made from: water. As drought and development strain limited local water resources, the Sunbelt wants to tap some of the billions of gallons of Great...

Darfur Hopes Lie in Hidden Lake
Darfur Hopes Lie in Hidden Lake

Darfur Hopes Lie in Hidden Lake

A hidden lake could spur 1,000 wells and quell deadly competition over resources in Darfur

(Newser) - A giant lake discovered beneath Darfur could lead to resolution of the conflict in the region, where genocide has claimed the lives of more than 200,000 Darfuris and 2 million people have been left homeless since 2003, the BBC reports. Radar revealed the ancient body of water, comparable in...

20 Stories