A Mount Desert Island man and two girls "narrowly escaped with their lives" after the snowmobile they were on sank in a Southwest Harbor Pond.
Maine Warden Service officials say Eli Strauss, 43, his 12-year-old daughter Julia and her friend Jolie Beal, also 12, went snowmobiling Wednesday evening. When the three failed to return home as expected, Strauss’s wife, Robin Strauss, contacted authorities at about 5:30 p.m.
Southwest Harbor Police Lt. Mike Miller, knowing of open water at nearby Long Pond, drove to the boat launch and heard yelling. He found the two girls on the shore and determined that all three had managed to swim to safety. Eli Strauss had left to get help and was found in the woods suffering symptoms of hypothermia.
The three are being treated for hypothermia at Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor. Authorities say they are expected to recover. The snowmobile remains submerged in Long Pond.
State officials say police from Bar Harbor, Mount Desert, and Southwest Harbor assisted in the rescue, along with fire and rescue personnel from the towns of Tremont, Southwest Harbor and Mount Desert, and ambulance crews from Southwest Harbor and Northeast Harbor.
The Warden Service says the incident should serve as a reminder that, despite the cold temperatures, traveling on ice in Maine, on any water body at any time, can be dangerous, and travelers should take precautions.