奇速英语

消防员冰面解救儿童

Two teenagers had to be rescued by firefighters on Saturday after the ice they'd foolishly stepped onto broke away from the shore and started floating out into Lake Michigan. The males, ages 17 and 18, were roughly 40 yards into the lake when the Racine Fire Department arrived to rescue them just after 12:40 p.m.. Three had to swim to rescue the pair. The firefighters, with help from Kenosha's Coast Guard, pushed the piece of ice back to shore. They then put a ladder down for the two to climb back to safety. Neither teenager was injured.

The incident took place at the beach behind Racine Zoo. Visitors to the lake say it is very difficult to tell where the beach ends and the ice begins.

For the winter, bitter weather has threatened to turn the surface of the Great Lakes into a vast, frozen plain. During February there were days when as much as 85 percent of the lakes' surface area was covered with ice. Records show the lakes' most widespread freeze was 94.7 percent in 1979. The ice cover topped out at 92.2 percent March 2014.

Significant portions of the lakes typically froze over decades ago, Leshkevich said, but the frequency of severe winters has declined since the late 1990s. The ice blanket reaches across more than 90 percent of Lakes Superior, Huron and Erie, while Lakes Michigan and Ontario are more than halfway covered.

It has produced some spectacular visual images, from ice caves along the Lake Michigan shoreline to a glacial buildup making it appear that Niagara Falls had frozen in place. But it's a headache for the Coast Guard, who opened channels for vessels carrying cargo such as heating oil and road salt.