A Canadian cargo ship with 17 people on board remains in ice on Lake Erie near Buffalo, NY, according to Omar Faba with the U.S. Coast Guard. It has been frozen in water since Wednesday.
Efforts to break it up for free saw “progress” on Thursday, Faba said. However, work was canceled in the evening, he told CBC News. He said the plan was to return to work Friday and hopefully get him released.
The 202-metre Manitoulin had dropped off a load of wheat and was returning to Sarnia, Ontario, when it became stuck in ice that was rapidly forming in subzero temperatures off the Buffalo Coast.
And that’s where it remains, creating a striking spectacle on the lake, surrounded on all sides by ice and snow.
“We just haven’t had a bad winter in quite a while. So now that we’ve had one and people haven’t seen this for a little bit, they’re like ‘What’s going on?’ ? “,” said Paul Angellilo, a search and rescue specialist with the Coast Guard in Buffalo.
Great Lakes freighters are generally able to navigate surface ice in winter, but sometimes encounter ice that is too difficult or thick to break through, he said.
The Manitoulin was not damaged and the captain and crew were safe, the Coast Guard said.
