Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Searching Lake Erie For Four Missing Swimmers to Resume in Hour

Aired July 11, 2002 - 06:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A tragic story out of northwest Ohio now. Searching Lake Erie for four missing swimmers is to resume in about an hour. The swimmers had gone in to help a woman who was struggling in the choppy surf. One of her would-be rescuers was her fiance.

Wendy Gilette of CNN affiliate WOIO joins us live now from near Heron, Ohio. What happened?

WENDY GILETTE, CNN AFFILIATE WOIO REPORTER: Well, it is really a tragic story here. We are at Nickel Plate Beach near Heron. That's about 50 miles west of Cleveland. And as you said, search-and- recovery teams are expected to be back out here in about an hour. They will be looking for the bodies of four men. They all are presumed dead now.

Now, these four men lost their lives here in Lake Erie while heroically trying to save the life of another. Lake Erie was rough and treacherous yesterday afternoon, waves cresting at about 5 feet; 22-year-old Amy Renee Anderson (ph) of Finley was struggling in the water. The Coast Guard says her fiance and three of his friends jumped in to save her. Two members of the Heron dive team rescued her, but despite an intensive search by air and by sea, rescuers could not locate the four men. They range in age from 18 to 30. Three are from Finley, one from Sandusky.

Now, it is calmer here at the beach compared to yesterday, when 35-mile-per-hour winds were whipping up the surf here. Now, people were warned to stay out of the water yesterday. There are no lifeguards stationed here on the beach, and locals certainly know the dangers here. There was a drowning two years ago, and another one last year.

Live near Huron, I am Wendy Gilette -- back to you.

COSTELLO: So, Wendy, the victim, the female that they were trying to rescue, she had just had waded into the water. Was she into deep water, or was it rather shallow?

GILETTE: Well, we're not sure how far she actually went out. It was just such a severe undertow that even if you go out a few feet into the water, you can be dragged right out to sea. COSTELLO: It just seems so unusual that the Coast Guard managed to rescue her, and yet the four rescuers went into the water after her, and they drowned.

GILETTE: Yes, they said they just basically lost sight of the four men, that they got a little bit ahead of the woman, and so they were able to get the woman, but then the -- they lost sight of the other four men. They conducted quite an intensive search, but still could not find these four men.

COSTELLO: I guess it just illustrates how fast tragedy can happen when there is a huge undertow.

GILETTE: That's right. It's really a sad story for this whole community, and everyone here is going to be grieving today.

COSTELLO: All right. Thank you -- Wendy Gilette from CNN affiliate WOIO reporting live for us from near Heron, Ohio this morning.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.