The Deputy Director of Sarnia Transit says it will be a couple of days before the final cost of transporting 1,500 Americans back over the Blue Water Bridge, following Sunday's float down fiasco, is known.
Gusty north-northwest winds at 45 km/h blew Port Huron Float Down participants into Canadian waters and eventually close to shore.
Lee Patterson says he received a call from the Sarnia Police Service around 4pm, asking for help in busing them back to Port Huron.
"I think we ended up with eight buses and eight drivers that did 18 trips," he said.
The Canadian Coast Guard Central and Arctic Region took the lead in coordinating the rescue effort, no small feat when at least six emergency agencies as well as the Red Cross and security and fire personnel from Chemical Valley companies were involved.
Superintendent Peter Garapick says everyone tried to make sure people made it to shore safely.
"People said 'why won't you tow us?' When you have that many people on the water we couldn't preoccupy ourselves with towing twenty or thirty or forty or fifty. Our job on the water as Coast Guard was safety. We had to respond to people who were going to end up in the water going down," said Garapick.
Garapick says they will have a post-action meeting, first with Canadian first responders and then with those on the American side.
He said it is up to U.S. officials to decide if or how to control the unsanctioned event next year.
