In the first of two holiday weekends, Huron County sheriff deputies arrested eight people, wrote 14 tickets to kayakers and carried-out two search and rescues. With Fourth of July falling on a Wednesday, the department has prepared for back-to-back, holiday-caliber busy weekends. In the first weekend, starting Friday and ending Monday, deputies handled 63 complaints, according to Sheriff Kelly Hanson.
Those complaints led to eight arrests, including four alleged drunk drivers. There were 14 tickets written to kayakers not wearing a life vest, raising the total to 28 citations written of that type in 2018, four less than the total for all of 2017, according to the sheriff department. As for the search and rescues, the sheriff’s office was assisted by Good Samaritans on two occasions.
On Friday, the sheriff’s office responded to a 40-foot boat hitting the channel marker off Beadle Bay Marina & Campground, located on Sand Point in Caseville Township. A hole was plunged into the boat, causing water to fill the cabin cruiser. The sheriff’s office, along with Good Samaritan boaters, helped the damaged boat into the harbor.
The Huron County Sheriff Department responded to a possible rescue Saturday afternoon, when a Detroit woman was overtaken by a strong southwesterly wind while kayaking near Port Crescent State Park. The lone woman drifted about three miles until she was found near the Broken Rocks Association area of Port Austin Township.
A second search came Sunday night, involving a couple from Port Huron. The sheriff’s office and Port Austin Fire Department responded to reports the couple had been stranded off the Port Austin shoreline for an hour after their kayaks flipped. Before either agency arrived, a Good Samaritan had stopped to assist.
