MEARS, Mich. — What happened to this Spring Lake man is exactly the reason you tell someone where you're going and how long you expect to be gone.
From the police perspective, this incident started around 9:40 p.m. Wednesday when temperatures were dropping again during the first respite from the single-digits in days; someone called 911 to report a family member missing after heading out across Upper Silver Lake on a snowmobile.
They'd left at 7:30 p.m.
A Oceana County Sheriff's Deputy went to the home, starting the search themself by looking around for what tracks might remain in the blizzard conditions.
Instead, yells for help from across the lake led first responders across the lake to where the 40-year-old lay in the snow, stranded and hurt on a man-made island.
He told first responders visibility all but disappeared and he'd been thrown from his snowmobile when he hit the island.
He'd been laying in the snow for at least 2 hours by that time.
A Michigan State Trooper from the Hart Post and an Oceana Sheriff's Deputy took off their own coats to give the man more warmth. At the time of the rescue, it was 24° with the wind bringing it down to a bitter 14°.
Crews put him in a rescue sled— wrapping him completely to keep any further warmth from escaping his body— and pulled him back across the lake to be taken to Trinity Health Hospital.
"This rescue was successful because of these agencies working together," a release from Oceana Undersheriff Ryan Schiller stated, telling FOX 17 it was a coorindated effort between Mason-Oceana 911, Michigan State Police – Hart Post, Life EMS, Hart Area Fire Department, and the Pentwater Fire Department who lent their drones to the search despite the blowing conditions.
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