Michigan rescuers save six lives trapped in log jam during thunderstorms

Six people were rescued amid thunderstorms after they became trapped on log jam along a muddy river late Saturday night.

Firefighters originally received a call for help just before 10 p.m. that five people who had been on kayaks and a canoe on the Pere Marquette River had become stuck and stranded on the log jam about 1.5 miles east of the Indian Bridge, according to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office.  And one in the party was suffering medical complications.

As thunderstorms approached, six rescuers made the trek up the river but encountered several log jams among their route.

“First responders reported having to walk through waist-deep water pulling and pushing their boats over and around multiple log jams in an attempt to get to the victims,” Mason County Sheriff’s officials wrote on Facebook. “First responders reported being in the water more then they were on their boats. All while dealing with the thunderstorm above them.”

They finally arrived at the stranded party to find there were six victims, not five, and all were stuck in waist-deep mud and exhausted. Two were showing signs of hypothermia, while a third was having heart complications.

Some rescuers gave up their spots on their boats to allow the six victims to be brought back to safety. It took two return trips back up the river to reach the waiting rescuers, officials said. Everyone was back on dry ground by 2 a.m.

Meanwhile, all six victims were treated back on shore by waiting paramedics and eventually released.