One of the warmest winters on record in the Chicago area has been deceptively dangerous for a few of those lured onto thin outdoor ice.
A prominent local businessman in Johnsburg died Sunday after he fell through the ice where he was playing hockey with his son. Earlier this month, an ice fisherman died after crashing through the surface on Pistakee Lake, also in McHenry County. In Streamwood on Monday, police said a 43-year-old man who was riding his bicycle in a park fell into a partially frozen pond, but he was rescued and in good condition.
Those who track ice thickness say Chicago-area waterways this winter have never been safe for skating, ice fishing or other activities. One local official is proposing a monitoring system to warn people about the thickness of the ice on the Chain O’ Lakes in the far northwest suburbs.
The tragedies have come during the fourth-warmest winter on record in Chicago history, according to climatologist Jim Angel, of the Illinois State Water Survey. This season comes in contrast to an unprecedented string of four winters with 50 or more inches of snowfall each, including the Blizzard of 2011, to which a dozen deaths have been attributed.
Normally, sustained cold snaps can freeze ice a foot solid on the Chain O’ Lakes, making them a winter playground for ice fishing, skating and cross-country skiing, even on warmer days well into March. But this year, there has been no such prolonged cold spells. For only the fourth winter in Chicago history, the temperature has never gone below zero.
That means that while many of the lakes have frozen over, the ice is thin and patchy. In both drownings, rescuers said the surface was only 2 inches thick.
The most recent person to die after falling into a partially frozen pond was Patrick Rorig, 47, a builder of custom homes and owner of Rorig Homes in Johnsburg. On Sunday evening, he went out with his middle school-age son to play hockey on the pond behind their house, where they had often played before.
Rorig fell through the ice and never came up. The McHenry County Fire Protection District searched and found him about half an hour later, Battalion Chief Mike Majercik said. The pond was only about 5 feet deep where he fell through, but he apparently could not find the hole to get out.
“He was a great guy,” Majercik said. “He grew up in town his whole life and built a lot of custom homes. He didn’t have an enemy in the world. Everybody liked him. If somebody needed a hand, he would give it to him.”
Rorig recently spent two days helping the widow of a former village trustee move, Majercik said.
His sister, Peg Schmidt, described her brother as a “fun-loving, hardworking family man. … He died being a dad.”
Rorig, also known as “Rocky,” is also survived by two older sons.
Gary Rabine has known Rorig since high school, when they competed against each other on separate high school wrestling teams. Rabine described his friend as a strong, hardworking man who never said a bad word about anybody.
“He was just such a great guy,” Rabine said. “If you think of somebody you’d want for the perfect father, friend or brother, there’s just no better guy.”
He often saw Rorig shoveling snow off the ice so he and all the neighborhood kids could skate and play hockey.
His was the second drowning in icy waters in the Johnsburg area this month. In another incident the night of Feb. 3, Justin Ribar, 29, of Wonder Lake, was ice fishing on Pistakee Lake when he fell into the water. He called for help but couldn’t be seen in the dark. Divers found his body the next day.
Johnsburg Village Trustee Mary Lou Hutchinson, whose husband heard Ribar and called for help, is haunted by the drownings yet still sees people out on the lake almost every day.
“It’s just not safe,” she said. “I just wish that ice would go away.”
Hutchinson, who in colder winters enjoys walking on the lakes, has proposed a monitoring system to measure the ice thickness at various points on the Chain O’ Lakes and post the findings publicly, as is done with water quality in the summer. While it’s impossible to check all areas of the ice, she said, the readings could give people a general sense of conditions.
In Grayslake, the Fire Protection District checks ice thickness, and the Park District uses a colored rating system to warn people about conditions. Not once this year have the agencies posted a green flag signaling the OK to skate on the lake, Grayslake Battalion Chief Jim Weidman said.
Not all falls through the ice end tragically. Grayslake firefighters responded to two incidents this month, including one Thursday when four children fell through the ice into about 3 feet of water while they were walking on a small pond in Third Lake.
Robert George was among a group of neighbors who helped rescue the children.
Upon hearing about Sunday’s drowning in Johnsburg, George said, “I still can’t believe people are going out on the ice like this. You really have to be sure that the ice is solid.”
Robert McCoppin is a Tribune reporter; Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter. Freelance reporter Andrea L. Brown contributed.
