Overview

• Parents reported the girls, ages 8, 10, 13 and 14, stranded just after 8 p.m. Saturday near Black Beach in Silver Bay, Minnesota.
• Rough water blocked a safe extraction by local boats as deputies used a former Coast Guard vessel to make visual contact and instruct the girls to stay put.
• Lake County Rescue set up a rope relay from a nearby larger island to deliver blankets and food because the girls were in swimsuits and getting cold.
• The Minnesota Air Rescue Team could not respond due to weather, so an Air Station Traverse City MH-60 Jayhawk arrived around 1 a.m. and hoisted all four to a prepared landing zone.
• Officials said the children were reunited with their parents without injuries, and newly released rescue video and statements praised the multiagency coordination.