Uh, Oh, Canada: 1500 people on rafts returned to Michigan

Canadian authorities herd US rafters onto buses back to the United States after an illegal rafting event Sunday down the St. Clair River.

Then the weather changed its mind, with high wind and heavy rain Sunday forcing around 1,500 people across the river and onto Canadian territory.

Participants originally set out for the Port Huron Float Down, an annual, booze-fueled event and Canada, which takes floaters 7.5 miles down the St. Clair River.

People riding inflatable mats and rings began showing up around 4 p.m. between Centennial Park and Corunna after winds gusting to 40 km/hour blew them off course during the unsanctioned event. The people he encountered weren’t carrying any identification because they hadn’t intended on getting stranded in Canada. “They waited in long lines, cold, wet and exhausted, but they all got home safely”. The floaters started from the Lighthouse beach on the southern tip of Lake Huron, Michigan and float down to Chrysler Beach in Marysville, Michigan.

A year ago the Coast Guard assisted more than 100 people who got in trouble, and one person drowned. The event takes place on the St. Clair River that divides MI from Ontario and it doesn’t have any official organizers or enforce many regulations.

Canadian Coast Guard, police rescued them. Another jet ski pulled her group within swimming distance of the USA shore and they made it to safety. Peter Garapick, the head of the Canadian Coast Guard’s search and rescue program, said numerous Americans, fearing the repercussions of entering Canada without proper documentation, attempted to swim back to the United States.

“We had to pull a lot of people out of the water and say ‘no.'”

A post on Sunday thanked Canadian authorities for their help: “You’ve shown us true kindness and what it means to be fantastic neighbours”.

At least one group of rescued rafters has made the crossing to Canada before.

Canadian officials spent over six hours and took 19 buses loaded with people back to the United States and dropped them at Customs and Border Protection.

“They were pushed over pretty quickly, and because they had no control over these dinghies and the wind was basically directing them and the current, they ended up over here”, Sarnia Police Const. John Sottosanti told the CTV Television Network.