Four injured boaters rescued after wreck

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. (AP) - The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources says four injured boaters from Louisiana were rescued after their boat wrecked on a concrete reef southeast of Bay St. Louis.

Two were seriously injured and the others had minor injuries, Spokeswoman Lauren Thompson told WLOX-TV (http://bit.ly/SXxk3m). All four are from Baton Rouge.

Their names were not available Sunday night, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jonathan Lally said.

Thompson said the men were heading from New Orleans to Biloxi when their 30-foot boat hit Taylor Key Reef about 2 a.m. Saturday. They did not have any navigation equipment, and shot off flares to help rescuers find them, she said.

Thompson said Marine Patrol and Coast Guard crews arrived about 2:25 a.m. Saturday and reportedly found the men sitting on the reef, wearing life jackets.

The seriously injured men were taken to Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, she said.

Comments

1) Comment by BoiledCrabs - 15/10/2012

Actually according to a Mississippi news source they called 911 from a cell phone but didn't have a working GPS device to give the rescuers their exact location. They did have flares and PDF's which is good. But running at night on the water can be dangerous without GPS and radar. Even out around the barrier islands there are very shallow areas which are on the GPS maps. Sounds like they paid a heavy price but thankfully no one died in the incident.

2) Comment by ABayouBoy - 15/10/2012

I guess that their cell phones were useless after being in the water.

3) Comment by CitizensArrest - 15/10/2012

At least they were wearing pdfs. That said, this story is pretty worthless without names and further details. I'd like to know who not to go boating with...and these four seem to fit the bill.