A man was rescued in the early morning of April 17 after becoming stuck in mud below the steep bluffs along the Lake Michigan shoreline near the 5400 block of South Lake Drive in Cudahy. Due to the cliffs being nearly vertical and about 100 to 150 feet high, direct access was difficult. Rescue efforts involved multiple agencies, including the Cudahy Fire Department, Milwaukee’s heavy urban rescue team, South Milwaukee Fire Department, the Coast Guard, and Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department. While rope rescue teams initially descended the cliffs, the man was ultimately evacuated by water using an inflatable life raft deployed by South Milwaukee firefighters, who traveled three miles through Lake Michigan to reach him.
The rescue took several hours in extremely low-visibility conditions, with the man treated and transported to a hospital for exposure concerns. South Milwaukee Fire Chief John Litchford noted that water-based rescues are a practiced response for these challenging bluff areas, where no accessible trails or roads exist for emergency equipment. This operation marked the third or fourth time in recent years that the department has used amphibious raft landings to safely extract individuals from the shoreline below the bluffs.
