Men rescued on Saginaw Bay need rescuing again

FRASER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - Two men have been rescued from the icy waters of Saginaw Bay for the second time this week after falling through unstable ice.

The two were trying to retrieve items they had to abandon during their first rescue Sunday when they needed to be rescued again Wednesday, The Saginaw News reported.

Bay County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched after being alerted to two men being in the water after their boat capsized, Sheriff Troy Cunningham said.

"The two men were trying to retrieve equipment they’d been forced to leave on the ice from their previous ice rescue," Cunningham said.

The two men, 23-year-old Johnathon Doughty of Otisville and 29-year-old Nicholas Mullins of Mount Morris, had to leave behind snowmobiles, fishing equipment and a camper Sunday because of a large crack in the ice, the sheriff said. The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a third person with them Sunday.

"They took a 12-foot flat-bottom boat to cross the water out to the ice floe, when it capsized in rough water," Cunningham said. One of the two’s cellphones still worked and he managed to call 911.

The U.S. Coast Guard deployed an airboat and a helicopter. The men were in the water for just over an hour, Cunningham said.

They were taken to a hospital for what appeared to be non-life-threatening injuries, Cunningham said.

Their boat sank. The items they were trying to retrieve remained on the ice.