Massive Ice Chunks Cause Great Lakes Traffic Jam

By Lisa White in News on Apr 9, 2015 3:00PM

Huge ice chunks, thanks to another brutal winter in the Great Lakes region this year, are blocking the flow of traffic on Lake Superior, leaving 18 freighter ships stuck in Whitefish Bay. Both the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard have teamed up to send help break the ice and set the freighters free.

Mark Gill, the director of Vessel Traffic Services for the U.S. Coast Guard, spoke to NPR's Melissa Block about the icy situation:

"Imagine an interstate highway where you've got a north and a south bound lane," Gill said. "And there's a bridge that passes over a waterway, and that bridge is out, so traffic going north, traffic going south, can't move until that bridge is repaired — that's kind of what we're up against here."

The thawing out process is jamming up the flow of things—Gill explains that just two weeks ago, the lake was almost 75% covered in ice, but since warmer temperatures moved through the area, the ice started to break away from shore lines. Heavy winds came after, moving all the free-floating ice and jamming it into poor Lake Superior. "Whitefish Bay is 100 percent covered with ice that is three feet thick," Gill told NPR.

When it comes to ice coverage, size matters. Gill elaborated to give a better understanding of what both Coast Guards are dealing with and it's a prime example of how Mother Nature can be absolutely terrifying:

"The ice in Lake Superior has pressed up against this firm ice edge in Whitefish Bay and has started to roll up on itself, and it's created a roughly 35 square mile field of ice. Some of the chunks that have come out of Lake Superior are pickup truck-sized. And those chunks that are that size are stacked on top of each other, they've reached a thickness of eight feet."

The 18 stuck freighters were mostly carrying iron ore and coal and are waiting in a holding pattern until a path is cleared. So far only two ships have been able to move out of the ice, thanks to help from the Canadian Coast Guard. Breaking up the ice can be a dangerous task and so far one of the ships did sustain a hole in one of its ballast tanks from the jagged ice. Gill explained the full process to NPR, and since it's basically finding an opening, shoving huge ice blocks to the side and then slowly inching a ship forward while the wind howls in your face, it sounds like a prime candidate for one of the worst jobs ever.

For now, both government agencies and the vessels are managing to press on and keep calm while fighting this lasting effect of a brutal winter. "Time is money for these vessels, so they want to know when they're moving," Gill said. "Occasionally people's frustration gets the better of them and they get some flare-ups. But for the most part, it's civil."

Check out more photos of the icy situation up north over on Al Jazeera.