Alaska Ice Broke Loose, Carried Man Out to Sea

An Alaska man was walking along the shoreline near Anchor Point on Saturday morning with his girlfriend when the ice he was walking on broke free and drifted into Cook Inlet, taking him along with it. Amazingly, Jamie Snedden clung to the ice for nearly an hour, was rescued, and is expected to make a full recovery—though the 45-year-old was treated for hypothermia. He was 300 yards offshore and submerged with only his head and arms above water, clinging to a 5-foot-square chunk of ice, when rescuers found him, the Anchorage Daily News reports. The water was 38 degrees Fahrenheit, with the air temperature at 30 degrees.

An Alaska Wildlife Trooper rowed out on an inflatable raft while a fishing boat that was three miles away and heard the call for help also headed over; they arrived around the same time to rescue Snedden, KTUU reports. The Coast Guard had also been alerted, but wasn't nearby. "I need somebody with a boat to come to (Anchor Point) beach now please—my boyfriend is stuck on a iceberg and going out with the tide," Snedden's girlfriend posted in a local Facebook group as she tried to get help. "I called 911—they are taking forever to get here." (More uplifting news stories.)