Hundreds of Fishermen Rescued From Russia Ice Floes
Pastor Dale Morgan
Hundreds of Fishermen Rescued From Russia Ice Floes*
The Associated Press
Saturday, February 3, 2007; 9:06 PM
MOSCOW -- Rescue services brought hundreds of fishermen to safety
Saturday after they were stranded on ice floes that had broken away from
the coast in Russia's Far East, emergency officials said.
The anglers, who were fishing through holes in the ice, had ignored
warnings from authorities about the dangers on the ice, Russian state
television reported. Two weeks earlier, some 60 people were evacuated
from the same area.
Strong winds hampered the nearly six-hour rescue operation aided by
helicopters and boats. The ice floes broke away from the coast near Cape
Svobodny in the Sea of Okhotsk, off the island of Sakhalin.
The rescuers brought 442 people, including women and children, back to
shore.
"All the fishermen have been taken off the ice," Oleg Shekhovtsev, the
deputy head of the Emergency Situations Ministry's branch in Sakhalin,
said in televised comments.