GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — The Coast Guard said Sunday an overnight cellphone conversation with a 13-year-old girl led its crews to a grounded pontoon boat carrying 15 people, 13 of them deaf.
A salvage boat sought Coast Guard help about 1:15 a.m. Saturday to locate the boat, which reported trouble in western Michigan’s Grand River near Grand Haven.
The Coast Guard station in Milwaukee was able to reach a girl by phone as she waited aboard the 16-foot boat.
The Coast Guard directed the commercial tow boat to the location, but the water was too shallow for a rescue. So, guardsmen launched an inflatable ice-rescue skiff from shore and shuttled passengers three at a time to the tow boat.
In Miami on Sunday, authorities identified the four people who were killed when a 32-foot pleasure boat carrying five young adults collided with another vessel on Friday.
The victims were Andrew Garcia, 23, Victoria Dempsey, 20, and Kelsie Karpiak, 24, all from Miami and on the first boat. Jason Soleimani, 23, of Old Westbury, N.Y., who was on the second vessel, was killed immediately.