Ice News

Don't forget to click on the above tabs "Area News" & "Harsens Island in  the News" for more stories!! St. Clair River jammed again - The Sarnia Observer - Ontario, CA Ice icebreakers were busy Monday clearing thick Lake Huron ice blown into the St. Clair River by north winds. Freighters approaching the river were asked to hold off for 24 hours to allow the U.S. and Canadian icebreakers to do their work, said Andy Maillet, regional supervisor of operations with the Canadian Coast Guard. "It did flush down all night long so the river is basically full of ice again," Maillet said. "The only good thing about that is Lake St. Clair is not frozen, so there's nothing hard that's going to stop the ice from flowing down." That in turn is reducing the risk of flooding, he added. Ice stopped Cross-river service at Sombra's Bluewater Ferry was halted by ice Sunday for the third time this winter. "It's bad today," owner Lowell Dalgety said Monday. "We're jammed up . . . we've got an awful lot of ice coming at us." Recent warm weather has released "some pretty impressive thick ice" that's proving difficult to move down through the river, Maillet said Several freighters became stuck Sunday but were able to move again with the help of icebreakers and a pair of tugboats. "It was a tough slog over the weekend," Maillet said. The latest river troubles coincided with Sunday's opening of the Sault Ste. Marie locks, which marked the official start of the new Great Lakes shipping season. Maillet said Monday it was hard to say when ship traffic on the St. Clair River would return to normal. Ice, extending from 2.5 to seven miles out, stretches 13 miles up the shoreline north of the Blue Water Bridge, he said. "So even if we were able to get an open-water route through that ice it doesn't mean that is going to stay." Nevertheless, the north winds driving the ice into the river are welcome, he added. "Once it flows through we're done with it."