Close X
Monday, November 25, 2024
ADVT 
International

2 Rescued After Boat Grounds Near Brink Of Niagara Falls

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 19 Jul, 2016 12:31 PM
    NIAGARA FALLS, N.Y. — Two people were rescued from a disabled motor boat that was adrift near the brink of Niagara Falls, a hazardous nighttime rescue that was hindered by high winds but helped when nearby dams lowered the river level, authorities said Monday.
     
    Police using a boat reached the pair after the winds prevented a helicopter from getting to them.
     
    The 2 1/2-hour rescue effort began around 11 p.m. Sunday, when the U.S. Coast Guard said its Buffalo station was notified by one of the boaters that their five-metre boat hit a reef and was adrift.
     
    The vessel was near Goat Island, which lies between the American and Canadian falls, and the Coast Guard told the boaters to anchor.
     
    The boat kept drifting until officials at the nearby hydropower plants lowered the level of the Niagara River. That grounded the boat about a kilometre from the top of the falls.
     
    When the effort to rescue the boaters with a police helicopter failed because of high winds, a New York State Park Police rescue boat was able to reach the grounded vessel and bring the Buffalo man and woman to shore. The disabled boat was later towed to shore at about 1:30 a.m. Monday, officials said.
     
    Lt. Patrick Moriarty of the park police said the agency's boat designed for river rescues is docked near Goat Island, down river from where the boaters got stranded. Still, the boaters, a 45-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman, put their lives at risk for even cruising into the river's exclusion zone, he said. The exclusion zone is a federally designated section that extends hundreds of yards upriver from the brink.
     
    "We're like the last line of defence before someone would go over the falls," Moriarty said.
     
    Buoys placed across the river warn boaters that they're approaching the no-go zone. Moriarty said the man operating the open-bow pleasure craft is an inexperienced boater who apparently didn't know what the markers meant.
     
    "It's the responsibility of the operator to be know the waters he's operating in, be able to read a chart, know what the buoys mean," he said.
     
    Moriarty said his agency and local emergency crews perform similar rescues "several times every year."

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Orlando Nightclub Shooting Has Greater Impact For LGBT Muslims: Activist

    Orlando Nightclub Shooting Has Greater Impact For LGBT Muslims: Activist
    For some who identify with both Islam and the LGBT community, the attack and its aftermath appears to have underscored the confluence of homophobia and Islamophobia.

    Orlando Nightclub Shooting Has Greater Impact For LGBT Muslims: Activist

    Indian Peacekeepers, UN Diplomats To Join Yoga Day Celebrations

    Indian Peacekeepers, UN Diplomats To Join Yoga Day Celebrations
    Indian peacekeepers serving in UN missions, participants from about 100 nationalities and top UN diplomats will join the second International Day of Yoga celebration next week with emphasis on how Yoga can help in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

    Indian Peacekeepers, UN Diplomats To Join Yoga Day Celebrations

    Hindu Priest Receives Death Threat In Bangladesh

    Hindu Priest Receives Death Threat In Bangladesh
    "The security of the (RK) Mission has been intensified as the priest filed a general diary with us," duty officer of the city's Wari police station told.

    Hindu Priest Receives Death Threat In Bangladesh

    H-1B Visa Abuse Harming American Workers: NYT

    H-1B Visa Abuse Harming American Workers: NYT
    H-1B visa "abuse" is harming American workers, leading US daily New York Times said on Thursday and asked the US Congress to close the loopholes as some companies skirt rules for using foreign workers with such visas by outsourcing recruitments to firms like Tata and Infosys.

    H-1B Visa Abuse Harming American Workers: NYT

    Kenya: Bomb Scare At Canadian High Commission Over Visas

    Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said Thursday the road to the Canadian diplomatic offices was sealed off as Kenyan bomb experts inspected the package.

    Kenya: Bomb Scare At Canadian High Commission Over Visas

    British MP Jo Cox Dies After Being Shot And Stabbed, Man Arrested

    British MP Jo Cox Dies After Being Shot And Stabbed, Man Arrested
    Jo Cox, a member of the British parliament, died after being shot in northern England,  UK police have said.

    British MP Jo Cox Dies After Being Shot And Stabbed, Man Arrested