An angler is getting the hero’s treatment for rescuing a woman who was overwhelmed by a wave and swept 50 feet from a North Shore breakwater into the frigid waters of a Lake Superior harbor.
The brief but harrowing scenario played out late Sunday afternoon as the woman and three fellow campers made their way toward the lighthouse in Grand Marais, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said.
The 21-year-old woman was in the water for three to four minutes before she was back on shore, enduring a headache and weakness that required others to get her to an ambulance for a trip to a nearby hospital, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
The woman struggled toward shore but had a way to go before a 29-year-old fisherman from Duluth called 911 and used his 20-foot-long pole net to pull the woman the rest of the way, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Deputy William Sandstrom, who responded to the emergency, said in his report that he thanked the man “and informed him that he more than likely saved her life.”
The Minnesota Star Tribune reached out to the woman for her account of her bone-chilling experience. Her brother said, wryly, that she can be reached by phone once “she recovers her phone from Lake Superior.”
A video of the incident captured on the harbor cam shows three of the four people walking in single file across the breakwater. Two in front quickened their pace before the wave crashed over the side of the wall. When the water cleared, only two people remained.
Sheriff Pat Eliasen said in a news release that “although Lake Superior is a tremendous sight when the winds are blowing strong, the lake is not forgiving when you make a mistake. Large waves will knock you into the water and strong currents can make it impossible to get to safety. Expiration in water that cold does not take long.”
