RANGELEY, Maine — Search and recovery efforts for three snowmobilers who have been missing since Monday will resume on Thursday, according to game wardens.
Search efforts in Rangeley Lake were postponed Wednesday because of cold and windy weather, according to Cpl. John MacDonald of the Maine Warden Service.
“We wish we could be there in the water,” MacDonald said Wednesday morning. “It’s just too windy, too cold.”
MacDonald said recovery efforts will resume at 8:30 a.m. Thursday. A media briefing is scheduled for 10 a.m.
Winds in the Rangeley area were gusting to about 25 mph on Wednesday morning.
The three men — Kenneth Henderson, 40, of China; Glenn Henderson, 43, of Sabattus; and John Spencer, 41, of Litchfield — left Carrabassett Valley for a ride at about 6 p.m. Monday and have not been seen since.
MacDonald said earlier this week it’s possible the three men could have gone into Rangeley Lake. The body of another snowmobiler, Dawn Newell, 45, of Yarmouth, was recovered from the lake on Monday.
Two of the men’s helmets were recovered near an area where Newell’s machine broke through the ice.
Ice fishing season kicked off statewide on New Year’s Day, but game wardens are urging people to be cautious while heading out on the water.
Newell’s death marked Maine’s first snowmobile fatality of the 2012-13 season, compared with five during 2011-12.
The record was 16 in 2002-03, according to the Maine Warden Service. There were seven fatalities in 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06, six in 2006-07, 12 in 2007-08, eight in 2008-09, three in 2009-10 and four in 2010-11.
Great. If some “beautiful person,like Ted kennedy fell thru the ice, the Navy would be there with submarines combing the bottom of the entire lake day and night. Coarse, if he was involved, he would not be the one in the lake, it would be somebody else………..most likely , a woman.
This happens every year, either wait until the weather is cold enough for the ice to get real thick or take the chance of falling in! I am praying that the lost snowmobilers are just lost and have found a way to survive until found!!
Oh it’s cold enough but the snow acts as an insulator. Most ponds and lakes are safe if someone uses caution. if someone wants to go blasting their sled across a lake at night then that is another story. I pray for the families.
Very true I have livestock and the water bowls are buried to their rim in snow. I only had to break a skim on the top this morning to reveal water underneath.
I am in Rangeley at this very moment…the water is still OPEN! Not all of course, but there is to much open water here to risk the ice travel. But then again at night you would not know that.
For some reason you are not taking any consideration for the Wardens and 1st responders who risk their lives to recover those that made a poor choice by being on the lake in the first place. Rangeley Lake is big, but it’s not the ocean. thank you to all that are involved in this recovery effort!