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10-24-13 Chicago, IL 5 Rescued After Boat Runs Aground On Lake Calumet

Five people, including three children, were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, after the boat they were riding in ran aground in Lake Calumet on the Far South Side on Thursday afternoon. The 36-foot boat washed onto land shortly before 4 p.m. near the mouth of the Calumet River on the lake, according to a statement from the U.S. Coast Guard. Officials said shallow water drove the boat aground. The operator called Coast Guard Station Calumet Harbor and said the boat had grounded, and a private service would not be able to assist them until the following day, a statement from the Coast Guard said. A rescue boat crew from the station arrived near the scene, then made three trips in a 7-foot skiff to rescue the five people on the boat, who were ten taken to Sunset Bay Marina, the Coast Guard said. No injuries were reported among the five people, who included three children between 11 and 16 years old. It was one of several similar rescues involving stranded boaters on the lake made this boating season, according to the Coast Guard. Read full story here.

10-24-13 St. Louis, MO Report: Man dies after boat, barges collide on Missouri River A man hospitalized after a small boat he was on collided with barges on the Missouri River Wednesday has died, according to the Alton Telegraph. The report says Rodney Stumo, 51, died around 5:30 a.m. Thursday at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Authorities say a tow boat was pushing two barges near the 67 bridge in the West Alton area around 9:30 a.m. when they struck the Stumo’s boat. Workers on the barges saw the man in distress and they alerted other workers near the bridge for help. They performed CPR on Stumo and he was initially taken to Christian Hospital in north St. Louis County, He was then transferred to Barnes-Jewish, where he died Thursday morning. Read full story here.

10-24-13 San Francisco, CA Eight rescued from sinking boat south of Dumbarton Bridge Firefighters rescued eight people from an overloaded airboat Thursday after it struck a submerged piling in the Bay and started taking on water, authorities said. No one was injured in the approximately 8:35 a.m. incident that left the group stranded about one mile south of the Dumbarton Bridge and 150 yards offshore. Because the tide was going out during the rescue the boat ending up coming to rest in some mud instead of sinking, Menlo Park Fire District Division Chief Frank Fraone said. "They were very lucky," said Fraone. "There were no (life jackets) onboard and that's illegal." He added the boat was also overloaded by at least two people, though he wasn't sure of its exact capacity. The people were from an environmental group, the name of which wasn't immediately available, that were in the San Francisco Bay to identify and remove certain plants. Fraone had no further details. While on the water they struck the submerged remains of a piling that was part of a railroad trestle that once crossed the Bay, but burned in the 1990s, Fraone said. Damage from the crash caused the boat to take on water, and prompted the group to call for help. After firefighters took the people ashore, the stranded boat was drained and driven back to land. Read full story here.

10-21/20/22-13 Florida Keys 3 days, 3 boats sink Five uninjured people were rescued from a dinghy in the Gulf of Mexico Monday night after a yacht caught fire and sank in deep water, marking the second yacht to sink off the Florida Keys in as many days. A Coast Guard Sector Key West response boat, a Coast Guard cutter already at sea and two Coast Guard C-144 airplanes from Miami responded to a 6:46 p.m. report of a vessel fire 30 to 50 miles nautical miles northwest of Key West, said Coast Guard spokesman Ensign Max Franco. None of the five people on board were identified, but all were in good health when the Sector Key West response boat recovered them, Franco said. All were taken back to Key West. The fire was reported by a woman who received a satellite phone call from her husband, who told her the 39-foot Bertram named Afterhours was on fire and sinking, Franco said. It was not the boat, a 50-foot Hatteras, of the same name, currently docked at Key West Bight. The wife called Coast Guard Station Marathon and watchstanders there relayed the call to Sector Key West, Franco said. The cutter arrived on scene and found the boat had sunk in deep water, making any salvage attempt impossible, Franco said. The exact coordinates were not available Tuesday, so Franco couldn't say how deep the water is where the boat sank. "I can say it was deemed unrecoverable," he said.  Meanwhile, at 2:41 p.m. Tuesday a 70-foot yacht named Impact collided with the rock jetties in the Northwest Channel that connects Key West Harbor with the Gulf of Mexico, Franco said. All four people were uninjured and boarded a Sector Key West response boat. That launch boat began to tow the boat back to Key West. Commercial salvors began pumping water out of the yacht and then towed it back to Robbie's Marina on Stock Island. It was unknown where the yacht was coming from and where it was headed as of Tuesday or what caused the impact, Franco said. In a third incident, two uninjured people were rescued by Coast Guard Station Islamorada crews early Sunday from a life raft about six miles south of Islamorada. What caused that 50-foot Hatteras to sink about 1:50 a.m. also remains under investigation. That boat will be commercially salvaged, Franco said. There were no reports of bad weather in the area during the three incidents Read full story here.

10-21-13 Washington, DC Boat overturns near Reagan National Airport, three rescued Three people were rescued from the Potomac River Monday night after a large boat overturned near Reagan National Airport. The D.C. Fire Department tells WTOP it happened just before 10:30 p.m. They believe there were three people on the boat and there's no word yet on whether they were hurt. The cause of the capsizing is being investigated.Read full story here.