Strong winds threw several boats on shore and sunk others Saturday night.
By Melissa Smith
Thursday, September 03, 2009 at 5:44 p.m.
Read more: Local, Environment, Weather, Community
TRAVERSE CITY -- Waters are calm here on the west bay but this past weekend it was an entirely different story.
"The wind was astronomical and the waves were unimaginable, I've been in some serious storms in the gulf and I'd never seen anything like it in my life," says boat owner Levi Rehmann.
Saturday night waves five to seven feet high and strong northern winds, sunk Rehmann's 45 foot houseboat and flooded his friends 32 foot fishing boat.
The two moored boats were among a dozen that were either washed ashore or sunk near the west end beach.
"It was sunk about halfway up where it sits in the water now...It was in bad shape, I mean furniture was floating around...Luckily it only took us about 12 hours to get it turned around and out of the water," says Rehmann.
Mother nature's wrath did leave a costly bill for the boat owners along with the task of bringing their boat to the surface.
"Between the generators, the motors upwards of $20 thousand probably, but it still floats so that's a good thing and we got it out," says Rehmann.
The other damaged boats were removed from the West Bay area by Sunday evening. Police and the DNR spent the day contacting owners and making sure there weren't any hazardous materials in the water.
"There's no sheen on the water....The boat owners indicate that there is no fuel on the boats so at this point we don't have any evidence of a fuel leakage problem....it just seems like every year around this time when the weathers going to change and we get a strong north wind we have this issue," says Captain Steve Morgan with the Traverse City Police Department.
Meanwhile, for Levi Rehmann the experience has him ending his boating season a little early this year.
"We're going to the marina and dry docking because after this, I think boating season is over as far as Traverse City goes, unless we have something smaller then it's alright," says Rehmann.
Captain Morgan says Traverse City Police and fire rescue crews will continue to monitor the area for any signs of fuel that leaked into the water from the damaged boats.
