Coast Guard rescues stranded boaters near Morgan City

Some electronic detective work, a flare and an MH-60 helicopter came together for the rescue of two people stranded in a small boat in wetlands near Morgan City, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.

Two occupants of a 24-foot skiff were hoisted onto the helicopter and transferred to University Medical Center in New Orleans, and are reported in stable condition.

According to the Coast Guard account, the watch at Coast Guard Sector New Orleans received a distress call via VHF radio at 2:04 a.m. Tuesday. The call had no other information than the word "help."

Watch-standers used the radio tower used for the distress call to identify a rough area for the search and sent a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter.

While searching the Atchafalaya Bay shoreline, the helicopter crew spotted a flare that led them to the boat, which was grounded in the wetlands, the Coast Guard said.

The boaters were stranded without any means of communication and were not the ones that made the initial call for help.

“With no other means of communication, the flare was the only way we could have known the boaters were out there,” said Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Keefe, a Sector New Orleans search and rescue mission coordinator. “The Coast Guard continues to urge the boating public to have proper communication equipment like VHF radios and locating devices such as EPIRBs and SPOT GPS to broadcast one’s location in case of emergencies like this.”