CLEVELAND — Coast Guard crews have ended their active search Monday morning for a missing teenager, last seen at Lakefront Beach in Portage, Ind., Sunday night.
The Coast Guard ended the search at 10 a.m. CST, after rescue crews from Coast Guard Station Michigan City, Ind., Coast Guard Air Facility Waukegan, Ill., and Coast Guard Air Station Detroit, searched continuously for more than 12 hours, throughout Sunday night and Monday morning for the missing teenager.
A radio watchstander at Coast Guard Station Michigan City received notification at 6 p.m. CST, from Portage County 911 dispatch of a 16-year-old boy, who was last seen caught in a rip current and struggling to return to shore at Lakefront Beach.
Station Michigan City launched a rescue boat crew aboard a 25-foot Response Boat-Small and a 47-foot Motor Lifeboat. The Coast Guard also launched rescue aircrews aboard MH-65C Dolphin rescue helicopters from Air Station Detroit and Air Facility Waukegan.
Also participating in the search were rescue crews from Portage, Porter, Ogden Dunes and Burns Harbor fire departments, Portage County Marine Unit and Indiana Department of Natural Resources Marine Units.
Late Sunday night, after conducting numerous searches, the incident command post stood down local responders due to weather exceeding their operational limitations. The local responders also continued their search efforts this morning.
The Portage City Fire Department is leading the continuing search efforts.
The Coast Guard suspends a search and rescue case with extremely great care and deliberation. Only after a probable search area is saturated with the appropriate assets and resources, and persons lost or in distress are still not located, a decision is made to suspend a case.
The Coast Guard offers these tips that swimmers should use to help them identify, avoid and escape rip currents:
Identify — Look for changes in water color; water motion; incoming wave shape or breaking point compared to adjacent conditions; channels of churning or choppy water; lines of foam, seaweed or debris moving seaward
Avoid — Check the latest National Weather Service forecast for local beach conditions before heading out; learn to swim; learn to swim in surf; never swim alone; swim near a lifeguard; look for posted signs and warning flags indicating hazards; check with lifeguards before swimming and obey their instructions; always assume rip currents are present; if in doubt, don’t go out
Escape — Remain calm to conserve energy; don’t fight the current; swim across the current parallel to the shoreline; when out of the current, swim an angle away from the current and toward shore; if you can’t escape, try to float or tread water until the current subsides then swim to shore; if you can’t reach shore, face the shore, wave your arms and yell for help to draw attention
Assist — Get help from a lifeguard or if one isn’t available, call 911; throw the victim something that floats — a life jacket, cooler, ball; yell instructions to escape; don’t become a victim trying to help someone else
