The ride downriver had been good. But by evening on the way back, it started to get bumpy.“There was lots of dark spots, lots of water,” said Nikiefer. Then suddenly, the ice turned needley. The snowmachine stopped, and then started to sink. They jumped off and started to swim.
“The ice was so thick flowing down the river. It was forming so fast. It was freezing so fast. Just amazing. I’d never seen anything like that," one of the hunters, Rex Nick, said.
The cold and wet hunters built a fire to keep warm until Alaska Army National Guard rescuers arrived hours later.
Multiple storms and warm weather in St. Mary's.
The loss of frozen ground in Arctic regions is a striking result of climate change. And it is also a cause of more warming to come.
Early river break-up and low water
11-21-12 Air pockets in river ice - St. Marys, Alaska, USA
In the village of about 400, outgoing winter ice dams triggered flooding tha shut down the low-lying runway for 11 days.
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