Isabella Rossellini made 911 call that led to boat rescue

Actress Isabella Rossellini made the 911 call that led to the rescue of eight people who were onboard a boat that capsized in the Old Inlet in Bellport Bay on Sunday afternoon, officials said.

The boat, which carried three adults and five children, capsized after hitting a sandbar about 4 p.m., Bellport Village spokesman John Kocay said.

Rossellini, a former model and prominent Bellport resident, was walking with a friend from Ho-Hum Beach to the inlet when she noticed the overturned boat and called 911, Kocay said.

Three of the children were trapped under the capsized vessel, Kocay said. They were eventually pulled out by the other passengers as the group “struggled in the inlet’s currents” and ultimately made it to shore at Fire Island’s Otis Pike Wilderness Area, Kocay said.

There, Rossellini provided them with towels to keep them warm.

Bellport lifeguards stationed at Ho-Hum Beach ran a mile and a half to attend to the group, who were “in a state of shock, with lacerations and bruises,” Kocay said.

They were later taken by ferry to the pier in Bellport and from there were transported to Brookhaven Memorial Hospital Medical Center.

“Ms. Rossellini stayed with the group all the way to safety, until they reached the ambulances waiting at the Village Main Dock,” Kocay said. “If it hadn’t been for . . . [Rossellini’s] beach walk and her 911 emergency cellphone call, the distressed group would have been in for a long night.”