Kayaker Rescued Offshore From Connecticut After Being In Water 17 Hours
NORWALK, Conn. (CBSNewYork) -- Suffolk County police officers rescued a man Sunday after he was stranded in the Long Island Sound for about 17 hours after his kayak capsized.
Michael Diaz went fishing in the kayak in the Long Island Sound off Lloyd Harbor Village on Saturday morning. He didn't come home, and his roommate reported him missing Sunday morning, police said.
Officers from the Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau and the Nassau County Police Department Aviation Bureau and Marine Bureau, along with the U.S. Coast Guard and local volunteer fire departments, conducted a search of the sound.
Marine Bureau Officers Matthew Funaro, Brian Flatley and Peter Bogachunas, aboard Marine Delta, heard a call over the VHF radio that a man was clinging to the rocks at Greens Ledge Light about a mile off Norwalk, Connecticut, police said.
Police found Diaz wearing a lifejacket as he lay on a platform at the edge of the rocks around the lighthouse. Crews assisted him to shore afterward, police said.
Diaz, 56, of Huntington, said his kayak collapsed at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. He was taken to Western Connecticut Health Network Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut for hypothermia, police said.
At the time Diaz was rescued, there was a small craft advisory in effect with water temperatures at about 68 degrees, police said.
