Cuban migrant found clinging to the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys
The U.S. Coast Guard rescued a Cuban migrant found clinging to a support column of the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys Wednesday morning, the Border Patrol confirmed.
Coast Guard crews lowered the man from the bridge and turned him over to the U.S. Border Patrol around 6:30 a.m., said Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Estrada, a Coast Guard spokesman.
Adam Hoffner, division chief for U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Miami operations, said two migrants were found in the area, both arriving on wind surfboards. The other man was found on Big Pine Key, about nine miles south of the bridge, Hoffner said.
“The migrants reported that they departed from the Matanzas region of Cuba,” he told the Miami Herald/FLKeysNews.com.
The incident happened as the Coast Guard, Border Patrol and U.S. Customs Air and Marine Operations are dealing with the largest influx of maritime migration from Cuba to South Florida in nearly a decade. The Keys are the most frequent landing spot for the migrants.
The rescue happened thanks to Marathon resident Francie Seidman-Boellard, who was on her morning walk across the old Seven Mile Bridge, which runs parallel to the span that opened in 1982.
She heard whistles coming from the water of the newer span. She shined her flashlight in his direction and he yelled “OK,” said Seidman-Boellard, 63.
“I ran as quickly as this old body could back to my car where my phone was and called 911,” she said. “So glad the man is alive.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2022 at 8:27 AM.
