Lake Erie ships did this before big storm: Photos
*Related video above: high winds caused low water levels on Lake Erie during Saturday’s powerful winter storm*
SANDUSKY, Ohio (WJW) — Greg Peiffer has lived on the Lake Erie Islands for 16 years. Last Saturday he knew it was going to be a “monster” of a storm when he saw six ships that carry bulk cargo, aptly named Great Lakes freighters, seeking safe harbor from the impending winter storm.
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Peiffer snapped photos of six freighters that dropped anchor a mile off of Sandusky about 12 hours before 65 mph wind gusts thrashed the lake all day and night causing waves in the middle of Lake Erie up to 20 feet.
“I saw the ships coming in one after another and they dropped anchor about a quarter mile away from each other in a straight line on Lake Erie, definitely a rarity to see that,” Peiffer told Fox 8 News.
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Billy Market, owner of the Miller Ferry, who has lived on Catawba his whole life said, “When captains see a powerful storm like Saturday’s in the forecast, they say no thanks, and head for refuge where the waves won’t be as dangerously high based on the wind direction.”
Market said the freighters haul taconite and iron-ore from Minnesota that is used to make steel in Cleveland and he said that they also carry “a lot of other ‘bulk’ like rock salt, coal and stone to and from places like Chicago, or Wisconsin and all of the Great Lakes.”
Peiffer said he woke up early Monday morning and all of the freighters had left, “safe and back at.”
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