More than 220 people were stranded today off the coast of Latvia when the ice they were walking on by the coastline separated from the shore and drifted off to sea on what is known as an 'ice floe.'
Two separate ice floes headed out into the Gulf of Riga today, and carried quite a few passengers along with them. An ice floe occurs when the ice formed in shallower waters breaks off from the coastline and blows out to sea, usually as a result of warmer weather.
181 people were stranded on the larger ice floe near the capitol city of Riga, and were eventually rescued by boat. A helicopter had to rescue the second group of people, 42 in total, when the ice they were walking on broke off near the coastal resort town of Jurmala.
One man is still waiting to be rescued from the ice floe near Jurmala. He refused to be rescued by helicopter and is patiently waiting until a boat can come and pick him up. Officials from Latvia's fire service said that rough seas were making rescue difficult for the Fire and Rescue Service, National Border Guard, Coast Guard, and military.
Kaspars Scrabans, an oil company manager, reported that he had first noticed that the people were in danger when he saw that a crack had appear near the shoreline of Jurmala and extended all the way out to see. It was then that he saw the 42 people stranded on the ice floe that was being blown out to sea by strong, warm prevailing winds.
Ice floes occur regularly in the Baltic states, often stranding ice fisherman that stray too far from coast and usually once the weather warms up a bit. According to CNN, temperatures were above freezing in Riga today.
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