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Ice floe strands hundreds

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Picture from FOX Toledo News reporter Sharia Davis at Lake Erie in Ottawa County, 1000 yards off Crane Creek State Park.

Location of the 8-mile wide ice floe that broke off near the Lake Erie shoreline, Feb. 7, 2009. Map courtesy of FOXNews.com

Ice fishermen Gary Vaughn, left, of Pennsylvania, and David Hudzinski, from Wisconsin, make a phone call after being rescued from the ice at Crane Creek Park in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Rescue workers walk across frozen Lake Erie as they return to shore at Crane Creek State Park in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A coast guard rescue boat goes out on the ice at Crane Creek State Park in Oak Harbor, Ohio, to bring back materials after rescuing fisherman from the ice. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

A Coast Guard helicopter flies over fishermen stranded on a slab of ice about 8 miles wide that broke free and floated away from the Ohio shoreline of Lake Erie, at Oak Harbor, Ohio. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

City of Oregon fire fighters and members of the US Coast Guard work together to move a boat to rescue stranded anglers on Lake Erie near Crane Creek State Park, in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Two unidentified fishermen remove their gear from a U.S. Coast Guard airboat after being rescued from the ice near Crane Creek State Park in Oak Harbor, Ohio. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Several anglers on snowmobiles were able to make their way around a large crack in the ice on Lake Erie that stranded fisherman. The Davis Besse Nuclear Power Plant is off in the distance. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Members of the US Coast Guard walk across the frozen Lake Erie as they attempt to reach stranded fishermen. Photo: AP
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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134 rescued from ice floe; 1 dead

Updated: Monday, 09 Feb 2009, 10:44 PM EST
Published : Saturday, 07 Feb 2009, 1:03 PM EST

  • by BARRETT ANDREWS, FOX Toledo News

OFF THE COAST OF LAKE ERIE - Ottawa County Sheriff Bob Bratton said one person died after falling through the ice and into Lake Erie Saturday afternoon. He was one of the hundreds of ice fishermen trapped on an 8-mile-long ice floe that stretched from Metzger Marsh in eastern Lucas County to Crane Creek State Park in western Ottawa County, first responders told FOX Toledo News.

All 134 fishermen have now been accounted for.

The lone victim has been identified as Leslie L. Love, 65, of New Albany, Ohio. Friends who were with him told the Ottawa County sheriff that his snowmobile sunk into about 3-feet of water. When they pulled him out, he collapsed from an apparent heart attack. His son-in-law performed CPR until a coast guard helicopter flew Love to Firelands Regional Medical Center in Port Clinton.

Earlier in the day, fishermen had laid down plywood planks on the thin layer of ice to get out to the lake, but the ice melted and sunk their wooden path back to shore, emergency officials said. Warmer temperatures and high wind caused the gap in the ice to grow, leaving people stranded.

Toledo and Washington Township fire departments, the latter equipped with two rescue hovercraft, also assisted Jerusalem Township in the rescue efforts.

(FOX Toledo's Chris Poturalski, Tiffany Tarpley and Sharia Davis contributed to this report.)

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