Do fish that are caught through the ice taste better? Would I be hard pressed to tell the difference between a winter walleye and lobster, or a February perch and king crab?
Those were the questions running through my mind Friday night as I monitored the emergency scanner and heard multiple law enforcement and first responder agencies being dispatched out to save people still on the ice during the squall warning. In Winnebago County’s jurisdiction there were 14-incidents resulting in 25 rescues. We haven’t heard how many people Calumet and Fond du Lac County agencies had to go out and save that night–but I am sure they were plenty busy as well.
Some of those requiring rescue had driven into cracks in the ice–all but invisible in the whiteout conditions. Some were hopelessly lost on the ice unsure of which way was back to shore. But everyone out there had one thing in common: they had been warned.
Cellphones across the region were buzzing up a storm (pun intended) Friday night with severe weather warnings of the winter squall. Maybe it is because most of us have never received such a warning, but social media was alight with people mocking the idea that a relatively narrow band of snow required activation of the Emergency Alert System. But once the storm rolled in, most of those scoffers had to admit that it was actually a very dangerous situation for anyone that was outside.
Some folks did show proper caution and got in off the ice as quickly as possible. Battle on ‘Bago sent people home after the warning was issued–even though their activities were taking place on-shore, there was no guarantee that the giant tent was going to withstand 70-mile an hour winds and heavy snow. There was probably a convoy of trucks and ATV’s that headed in when those still out there got the alerts and recognized that they were in very precarious positions. But for at least 25-people, more fishing (and likely more drinking) was worth the risk.
And once they realized that maybe one more walleye or one more bluegill might not be worth it, it was too late. I’ve made light of my personal fear of going out onto the ice in perfect conditions–because there is a lot of water underneath you that will kill in just a few minutes–but when that is what actually happens to you, that must be absolutely terrifying. The people going in on Lake Poygan were lucky, that’s only six feet deep in most place and you can practically stand up in the 34-degree weather before hypothermia sets in.
This is the point where we need to show our respect for the rescue crews that went out and put their lives on the line to save those that had put their lives on the line for some fish. Ice rescues are inherently difficult and dangerous. You need to somehow get out to an area of unstable ice without going in yourself and then dive teams need to enter the aforementioned killer cold of the water. Now imagine doing that in the dark, with even less vision due to a wall of blowing snow, in 60-70 mile an hour winds. Honestly, I don’t think I could have brought myself to do that–no matter how much I care for my neighbors.
A couple of volunteer fire departments saw their airboats damaged in the rescue efforts–meaning they were stuck back on shore waiting for repairs while more calls came in. And eventually, the residents of those towns will have to pick up the cost of making those vessels safe again.
In the days of less technology and less understanding of weather and meteorology, People were killed in storms because they did not know they were coming–or did not know the severity of what was about to hit them. But today, forecasters and computers can predict storm paths down to the city block–and alerts are available 24-hours a day on a tool that few of us even set down for more than five minutes at a time.
And yet, we still have people dying–or needing high-risk rescue–all the time. Crews have to head out onto Lake Winnebago quite often in the summer for boats that didn’t come in during severe thunderstorm warnings and are now swamped or capsized in heavy winds or high waves. Paddlers get blown so far off-shore they have no hope of making it back because they didn’t heed wind advisories. People walking along flood-swollen rivers get swept in because they just need to “check it out”.
I realized just how little credence people give to severe weather alerts the first time in my radio career that I went into the stations to do a tornado warning. A twister was on the ground in Menominee County, Michigan–and I really thought that I was helping to save lives by providing information on the location and the path of the storm. But as I was reading the warnings and checking the radar, I could see out of the studio window that the bars across the street had emptied out–and everyone (still holding their drinks) was outside pointing at the funnel cloud as it moved just to the north of town.
Maybe those that had to be brought in from the ice Friday night have learned a very hard lesson. And maybe they will share that with the others who boast about how they “know the lake” and would never need to be rescued. And maybe we won’t all take to Facebook to mark ourselves “safe from the winter squall”. But I’m guessing the next time such a storm rolls in, we will all be just as ignorant–and the rescue crews will be just as busy.
In the meantime, can someone get me some of that walleye that is worth almost dying for?
