Two boaters were about two miles from the brink of Niagara Falls when they were snatched from disaster by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter. Coast Guard officials say their Buffalo station received a call around 9:15 p.m. Monday (August 26, 2014) reporting a 19-foot motor boat with two men aboard was anchored in the Niagara River about 2,000 feet inside the 2.5-mile exclusion zone from the falls. A crew from the Coast Guard air station in Detroit was dispatched to the scene, along with a Coast Guard vessel from Buffalo and boat crews from state and local police. The river’s shallow depth prevented the vessels from reaching the anchored boat. A Coast Guard helicopter rescued the two boaters shortly before midnight.
