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About 200 people were recently rescued after getting stranded on a large chunk of ice that broke away in a Minnesota lake, according to the BBC.
The individuals were fishing at a popular ice fishing destination on the Upper Red Lake in northern Minnesota when the ice broke, according to the Beltrami County Sheriff's office. The anglers were then surrounded by up to 90 feet of open water. "The ice with the south-west wind just shifted, and it broke away in some spots," Adam Studniski, one of the owners of the popular ice fishing resort JR's Corner, said.
The Beltrami County Sheriff's office recieved 911 calls from those on the iceberg at around 11:34 a.m. local time. Studniski's team and emergency responders worked together to safely evacuate the anglers. They used an ice bridge over a narrow part of the open water. Everyone was rescued by 2:37 p.m.
Studniski said incidents like this occur every once in a while this time of the year at the lake. "Part of our job is monitoring and looking at cracks and watching the [ice] and making sure we have bridges ready when needed," he said. The sheriff's office warned in its press release that "early season ice is very unpredictable."