CLEVELAND — Memorial Day Weekend is bringing higher spirits and a higher water level to Lake Erie.
The U.S. Coast Guard has a warning for boaters spending their holiday on the water: watch out for partially or fully-submerged breakwalls.
"A lot of boaters will think that they have more water in certain areas where they may not because the water level looks higher," said U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Second Class Erik Schultz.
Higher levels of runoff coupled with more ice over Lake Erie this past winter means there's more water in the lake now.
It's normally not a big problem, unless you're driving a boat into the lake during the Memorial Day Weekend holiday.
"Worst case scenario, a boat could completely come up on the breakwall," said Schultz.
Video from AirTracker 5 shows the rocks on the breakwalls are harder to see, even invisible in some places.
"It'll do damage to the bottom of the boat, do damage to the fiberglass, aluminum, whatever your boat may be made out of," said Schultz. "It could end up making your vessel sink."
That's why the U.S. Coast Guard says they'll be sending out divers over the next few days to mark hazards that boats need to avoid and building up the breakwalls so they're easier to spot.
