MADISON, Wis. -- Seventeen young, endangered whooping cranes apparently drowned in the storms that tore up central Florida last week. The birds were led south last fall from Wisconsin by ultralight aircraft, WISC-TV reported.

Endangered whooping cranes named Omega and Surat are thriving in captivity at the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, but surviving in the wild is a whole different story that sometimes has a sad ending, WISC-TV reported.

Nat Warning, who cares for the cranes, said that news of the 17 deaths that "it's definitely tragic."

At about 3 a.m. on Friday, sudden, severe storms devastated several counties in central Florida. A new flock of whooping cranes nesting off the coast near St. Petersburg were caught in the storms.

Hampered by the weather, an ICF worker, who was there to care for the animals, finally made it to their remote wildlife refuge in the Gulf of Mexico by airboat on the next afternoon. When she arrived at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge, she found a horrifying sight. Seventeen cranes were dead -- drowned in storm surges or tidal water when the winds blew down the netting over their enclosure and they couldn't get out, WISC-TV reported.

Ironically, officials said that the the netting was supposed to protect the young cranes. Without the netting, older cranes at times would swoop in and the young cranes would fly away and get eaten by bobcats outside the protected area, they said.

ICF Vice President Jim Harris said the deaths were an unforeseen accident.

"Unfortunately, this time, there were older birds about and that's why they were in the smaller pen," he said.

Nearly a fourth of the eastern migratory whooping crane population was lost, officials said.

As in the past, the cranes followed an ultralight from Neceedah, Wis., to Florida, but this was the first time in six years that every single bird made it to Florida about seven weeks ago.

Workers said that there is one miracle amid the tragedy; One of the cranes survived.

"One thought is that it was near a gate. .. in the pen and water hitting it sort of jarred it a bit, and the crane slipped out," Harris said.

Tracking its radio signal the big bird was found safe about 20 miles north, in the company of some sandhill cranes.

Workers who care for the cranes call the bird's survival consolation and a "ray of hope" for the future.

The foundation and various other groups have been working to bring the whooping crane back from the brink of extinction. They said that they plan to reviewed their Florida policies to see if anything should be done differently.