The poet John Donne wrote that “no man is an island.” But tell that to William Matson, who found himself marooned Saturday afternoon on a floating slab of Lake Michigan ice.
On one of the warmest days of the winter, Matson, 24, of Zion was walking on ice along Lake Michigan at Illinois Beach State Park when a 10-square-foot section broke free and floated about 100 feet offshore.
“He was walking out a little ways-he didn’t say how far- when a wave came up and broke the ice he was standing on, and it took him out on the lake,” said Chief Dale Colwell of the Bonnie Brook Fire Protection District.
Colwell said a companion called for help, but Matson was marooned for about an hour until he was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. He apparently was uninjured.
Rescue officials said that Matson’s plight was unusual, but not unprecedented. More important, it was a dramatic reminder that the week’s warm weather is quickly destabilizing and melting ice, making it dangerous to walk on frozen lakes and rivers.
Martin Davault, battalion chief with the Waukegan Fire Department, who was involved in the rescue, said that with Lake Michigan’s swift currents, ice atop it is particularly unpredictable.
“The current there is so big, it will break up the ice,” Davault said.
In another sign of the unseasonably warm weather, the City of Chicago temporarily closed its Skate on State ice rink for the weekend. It will reopen as soon as weather permits a proper ice base to form, city officials said.
