over 1,200 people have drowned in Lake Michigan since 2010

Most people are really dying from undertow in a lake? Or they fall off boats and it's cold.

Would like to see how many people drown in the ocean every year.

very rarely is the case of people falling off into cold waters (does happens incidentally); most boat-related deaths are from intentionally jumping off (usually in summer, in very favorable conditions btw) and being too drunk to get yourself back on etc.

yes, majority of people succumb to the currents. the undertow is the big one especially by the piers. we've lost one too many highschoolers to undertows during michigan summers

the ocean is much larger and with very defined streams bc it's so huge; the great lakes move more randomly by way of wind, river streams feeding into the lake, and winter melting. lake michigan may not give you california surfing waves at the top but it truly is an unpredictable mess underwater

I've watched guys surf in Grand Haven, maybe not California quality but there are waves...particularly in winter. Also, no sharks.

Wow, 400% of the Great Lakes drownings occur by St. Joe? Amazing!

Are you going to move this to proper forum or what, trust fund boy?

I would like to see how many from Indiana and Illinois.

Reason is people from southern Indiana & southern Illinois have no experience being around such a huge body of water.

Us "Michiganders" are surrounded by the GL's. It's in our blood and being. We know weather can turn in a instant even on nice days.

I know how to snow ski pretty good. But that doesn't make me a expert skiing in Utah\Colorado back country on a "blue bird day" unaware of avalanche conditions.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too
T'was the witch of November come stealin'
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashin'
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'
"Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya"
At 7 PM, a main hatchway caved in, he said
"Fellas, it's been good to know ya"
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her
They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams
The islands and bays are for sportsmen
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the maritime sailors' cathedral
The church bell chimed 'til it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early

At least they died doing what they loved.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Great Lakes are safer than our schools until we fix gun control

But see, the UP is Michigan. That's kind of like saying the panhandle isn't Florida, or Oahu isn't Hawaii. Dumb attempt at a point. Give me another US state that borders 4 of the GL. I'll wait ...

I think in Florida around 450-500 a year drown as shown here.

https://www.flhealthcharts.gov/ChartsDashboards/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=Death.DataViewer&cid=0105

PS. Google and AI are just awful. They claimed the figure is 4,5000 per year, writing, "According to a May 2024 study from the CDC, more than 4,500 people drowned in Florida each year from 2020–2022."

My father captained a USCG buoy tender / ice breaker on Lake Michigan. She often responded to rescue missions, as well, but they usually became recovery missions. It is extremely cold, and death comes rapidly. I remember vividly when two ice divers were lost - my father explained that he knew it was hopeless by the time the CG was called, they had surely already frozen to death, but I couldn't stop thinking about what a terrible way that was to die. Lost under a sheet of ice!

I always fear for Kofizi’s safety when he’s epically running along the lake, minding his GoPro and the waves violently crashing on the lakefront and his test shoes. Somehow inform him of this stat, STAT.

The lakes are so cold and deep that the dead bodies from the Edmund Fitzgerald are just lying on the bottom and haven't even decomposed yet.

CDC link for drownings. 4500 is about right for all of US, but way too high for Florida.

cdc.gov

Drowning Data

CDC

Explore drowning death rates by state

Open link

Interesting factoid is that Montana has the second highest per capita rate of drownings (2.32/100k) following Alaska. Alaska (4.4/100k) is almost double the rate of other leading states.