Lake Michigan Deaths Hit Eight-Year High

By Anna Deem in News on Aug 28, 2010 7:00PM

According to the U.S. Coast Guard, sixty-eight people have died in Lake Michigan so far this year--the highest in at least eight years and a great increase from 2009's thirty-nine deaths. Experts are attributing the increase to an unusually hot summer and warmer lake temperatures luring in more swimmers, some of which are unfamiliar with rip currents.

The only common link among each of the drownings for this year is that none of the victims were wearing personal flotation devices, Lt. Junior Grade Casey Steuer said to the Chicago Sun-Times. Steuer is stationed at the Coast Guard Sector Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. Steuer told the Sun-Times that many people mistakenly think Lake Michigan is a gentle inland lake. "In reality, it's a freshwater ocean," he said. "It's a very dangerous body of water."

"When the lifeguard or the Coast Guard or the DNR is telling you not to do something, there's a good reason," Chief Rebecca Polzin, who is in charge of the Coast Guard station in Michigan City, said to the Sun-Times.