Page TwoA2 LUDINGTON DAILY NEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2013 www.ludingtondailynews.com MANAGING EDITOR: STEVE BEGNOCHE | 843-1122 x326 | sbegnoche@ludingtondailynews.com

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100th Anniversary of the Great Storm of 1913

SPRING LAKE — To mark the 100th anniversary of the most disastrous storm on the Great Lakes, the West Michigan Underwater Pre-serve will host a Shipwrecks & Technology event Oct.19 at the Spring Lake/Grand Haven Holiday Inn, 940 W. Savage St., Spring Lake, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Variously called the “White Hurricane,” “Fresh-water Fury,” or “Great Storm of 1913” the storm pound-ed the lakes from Nov. 7- 12, 1913. Seventy-one ships were affected by this storm that ravaged four of the five Great Lakes with white out conditions, 60 mph sus-tained winds with 90 mph gusts and 35-foot-high waves. Nineteen ships were destroyed, 250 lives lost and $117 million in property and goods were damaged as measured by today’s values.

The way weather is fore-cast and communicated to ships and shipping compa-ny policies improved signifi-

cantly after that storm.Ric Mixter from Saginaw

will present a program, “Wrecknology: How Story-telling is Evolving,” which emphasizes the Great Storm of 1913. Mixter is a ship-wreck researcher, diving more than 100 Great Lakes shipwrecks including the Edmond Fitzgerald and the Carl D. Bradley where he served as SCUBA cam-eraman on expeditions. He has produced more than 30 programs for PBS and the Outdoor Channel. He has appeared as an expert on the History and Discovery Channels. He is Emmy nom-inated and has won awards including the Addy, Auro-ra, Michigan Association of Broadcasters for Best Use of Medium and more. He has gathered 20 years of stories on historical preservation. In 2009 he won an award for historic preservation from the Association for Great Lakes Maritime History and has served on its board of directors since 2011. He owns and operates his own company, Airworthy Pro-ductions.

The other keynote speak-er is Valerie van Heest, Mich-igan Shipwrecks Research Association director, who will present “Fatal Crossing: The Mysterious Disappear-ance of NWA Flight 2501 and the Quest for Answers.”

On June 23, 1950 North-west Airlines Flight 2501, a DC-4 with 58 people on board, disappeared over Lake Michigan. The wreck has not been located and the cause of the accident was never determined.

More than a half a centu-ry later, acclaimed author and explorer Clive Cussler

and the National Underwa-ter Marine Agency (NUMA) teamed up with the Michi-gan Shipwreck Research As-sociation to attempt to find the submerged wreckage and solve the mystery of the plane’s disappearance. van Heest will share how an un-expected meeting with a vic-tim’s son prompted a search of a different kind, and will reveal that the answers are sometimes found in unex-pected places.

van Heest has been in-volved in the discovery of more than a dozen ship-wrecks, many in collabora-

tion with Cussler and his NUMA team as well as David Trotter. She has led more than 30 archaeology proj-ects to document some of the Great Lakes most sig-nificant shipwrecks in her role as founder/director of MSRA, the Underwater Ar-chaeological Society of Chi-cago and the Southwest Michigan Underwater Pre-serve. She is a 2007 inductee to the Women Divers Hall of Fame and is an award-win-ning author, documentary filmmaker and museum ex-hibit designer who serves as managing partner in Laf-ferty van Heest and Associ-ates Exhibit Design. In 2008, the Historical Society of Michigan honored her for her work in preserving and promoting Michigan’s sub-merged maritime history. She has written six books to date and regularly contrib-utes articles to magazines. She has appeared on the His-tory and Travel channels as well as countless news spots and will appear on an Octo-ber episode of “Mysteries at the Museum” discussing the mystery of Flight 2501.

Other presenters and ac-tivities include “Underwa-ter Robots Explore the Great Lakes” by Dr. Mark Gleason, “Preventing Shipwrecks” by Commander Sean Brady USCG Grand Haven, and “20 Years After the Inva-sions” by Greg Lashbrook and Kathy Johnson which is about invasive species. “Topless on the Beach” by MSRA’s Craig Rich and Val-erie van Heest also is on the schedule. This story deals with the record low water levels locally and the dis-covery of several important shipwrecks. The Bent Prop Organization will show its film, ”Last Flight Home,” about searching for and re-covering WWII remains near Palau.

West Michigan scuba div-ing shops, travel agents and authors and more will be available in the vendors’ area. Outside the hotel on display will be Personal Sub-mersibles (mini submarines) a USCG boat and the Otta-wa and Muskegon County Sheriff’s Department Dive Teams.

Disastrous 1913 Great Lakes storm topic of program

• BUILD an ROV (remote oper-ated vehicle). $5 pre-registered $10 at the door.

• UNDERWATER Detectives,”learn what it takes to be an underwater archae-ologist $10 pre-registered $15 at the door.

• GREAT Lakes Dive Locker/Lakeshore Scuba will offer a Discover Scuba class for $15 at the hotel pool. Contact them

to register. Bring a swim suit and towel.

ADULTS ARE $20 pre-regis-tered $25 at the door. Family of two or more age 6 and up $30 pre-registered $35 at the door, child admission (high school age and younger) $10 pre-registered $15 at the door. 5 years old and under free. For all the details visit www.shipwrecksandtechnology.or.

ACTIVITIES AVAILABLE |FOR AN EXTRA COST ARE

ALLISON: ‘He was just an all-around good guy. I can’t say a bad thing about him’ FROM PAGE A1

Fountain Fire Chief Rog-er Berndt said Allison was there when another depart-ment needed him.

“He was a good guy,” Ber-ndt said. “If you needed something, he’d make sure you got it or there was a way to get it to you.”

One thing that rural de-partments relied on Custer for was the air trailer, where the air bottles that firefight-ers used for interior fire-fighting were stored and re-filled.

“Whenever you needed the air trailer he always made sure guys were there and trained to run them,” Berndt said. “He made sure his crew knew what they were doing.

“He made sure his guys were knowledgeable on what they were doing. He knew his job and he knew how to train people to do their jobs.”

Berndt said Allison was always cordial and informa-tive.

“He helped you run a fire,” Berndt said. “He was just an all-around good guy. I can’t say a bad thing about him.”

In addition to serving as Custer’s fire chief, Allison was also the assistant chief of the Mason County Rural Firefighters Chiefs Associa-tion, Riverton Fire Chief and Mason County Fire Chief Joe Cooper said.

“He was a great guy,” Coo-per said. “We made some pretty tough decisions to-gether on calls. I always en-joyed working with him. Whenever we had a struc-ture fire out here I looked forward to teaming up with him and using both our heads.”

Cooper said a large barn fire in September was a good example. Cooper said he could delegate any aspect of command to Allison and

know that it would be han-dled well.

“He always had good thoughts and made good de-cisions,” Cooper said. “When he got there, I could ask him to handle something and it was done. I didn’t have to worry about it — it was done and done correctly.”

Cooper said Allison also was very knowledgeable on search-and-rescue cases, even volunteering with a couple other local firefight-ers to assist in the search for Cullen Finnerty near the Baldwin River in Lake Coun-ty this spring.

“One of his specialty things he was very good at was organizing and doing search and rescue,” Coo-

per said. “Custer’s been in-volved in quite a bit of that over the years for lost hunt-ers. That was one of his spe-cialties. One of the things he shined in was search and rescue. Baby Kate, he did a lot with that, keeping that in control, helping out with the higher up officers from the State Police and other law enforcement.

“It’s going to be tough to replace a guy like that.”

FLOOD ASSISTANCEDuring the 2008 flood, Ma-

son County Emergency Man-agement Coordinator Liz Reimink was still learning the ropes and she credited Allison for showing up and helping out.

“He was definitely an as-set to the command unit,” Reimink said. “He was one of the first chiefs who ac-cepted me and brought me into the fold and got me trained when I first started. He has been a real friend since then.”

She said the June 2008 flood was an enormous event to take on and Allison made it easier.

“The biggest thing I re-member during the flood was he showed up,” Reim-ink said. “I didn’t have to call him. He just showed up and said ‘where should I sit?’ and got right to work. That morning was so chaotic. Just to have someone who knew what their job was, was

there ready to work — that sums up how he was on all things.

“When the work was there, he worked until it was done,” Reimink said.

Reimink, who is now a Hamlin firefighter in addi-tion to her primary title, said it struck her how Allison was always willing to do any job, no matter how small, on a fire scene.

“I know everybody on his department respected him,” she said. “He led by exam-ple. He wouldn’t ask any-one on his department to do anything he wouldn’t do himself. He was always right there in the mix.”

Hamlin Township Fire Chief Steve Vandervest

echoed that thought.“I knew John real well be-

cause I taught fire school, I taught ropes and knots,” Vandervest said. “He always used to assist me with the ropes and knots. It’s just hard to believe he’s gone.”

Vandervest said he always looked out for everyone on a scene, whether they were his own firefighters or not.

“He was always there to help when we needed him,” Vandervest said. “He was al-ways willing. Every time we cleared the scene, he’d say, ‘We’ll see you next time.’”

“He’s going to be missed a lot.”

bmulherin@ludingtondailynews.com843-1122 x348

FILE | DAILY NEWSCuster Fire Chief John Allison and firefighters from Custer and Riverton prepare to enter a home on South Darr Road in April. Allison passed away Monday evening following an illness. Allison was a prominent figure in the emergency community.