3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2016
Woman disappears in
the surf at Long Beach
Drowning
assumed after
extensive search
Invisible hazards
The incident started roughly
1½ hours before a fairly low
tide. At the time, the air tem-
perature and water tempera-
ture were both between about
55 and 60 degrees. Accord-
ing to various internet sources,
a healthy person who is in 50
to 60-degree water typically
reaches the point of exhaustion
or unconsciousness in one to
two hours, but can sometimes
survive for as long as six hours.
However, with many hazards
underwater, including rolling
logs and “crab holes,” as well
as a powerful, but invisible rip
current, most of the Peninsu-
la’s dozens of drowning vic-
tims have succumbed to the
water within an hour or so.
While the small waves
Wednesday night likely
appeared fairly harmless from
shore, the low tide may have
made it easier for the pair of
friends to unwittingly ven-
ture near some hazards that
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By NATALIE ST. JOHN
EO Media Group
LONG BEACH, Wash. —
A 25-year-old woman from
Seattle who went out for a swim
with her boyfriend Wednesday
night disappeared in the surf
and is presumed dead.
The victim has not been
publicly identiied. She was the
second person to drown on the
peninsula this summer.
Police, ire, medical and
surf rescue responders were
irst called to the beach at about
10:30 p.m. Wednesday night,
after a male friend, who was
with the woman when she dis-
appeared, called 911.
According to emergency
responders, the man and woman
were staying at the Adrift Hotel
and decided to go down to the
beach sometime after dark.
The man told responders that
he and the woman decided to
go for a dip in the ocean, prob-
ably at about 9:45 p.m. Within
about 10 minutes of entering
the water, the two became sepa-
rated. The man searched for the
woman in the waves and called
for her for about ive to 10 min-
utes. However, the night was
dark and overcast, and even
if it had been clear, the sliver
of crescent moon would have
provided very little light, so
visibility was extremely low.
Responders say the man real-
ized he needed to call 911, but
had left his cellphone back in
his hotel room. He ran back
to the hotel, called 911, then
returned to the beach, where he
worked with responders.
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A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter circles over the shoreline
near the Sid Snyder approach early Thursday morning
during the search for a woman who disappeared in the
surf earlier in the night.
are usually covered by much
deeper water.
Around 10:45 p.m., a res-
cuer asked the U.S. Coast
Guard to dispatch a search
helicopter. The Coast Guard
quickly sent an MH-60 Jay-
hawk helicopter from Sector
Columbia River in Warren-
ton, which arrived at about 11
p.m. The helicopter continued
to sweep back and forth over
the water in widening circles
for the remainder of the search
effort. As the evening wore on,
the helicopter began venturing
farther north and south, a pos-
sible indication that respond-
ers were shifting from a rescue
effort to a recovery effort.
Suspending the search
With little chance of inding
the woman amid the worsening
weather conditions, rescuers
suspended the ground search
at about 12:40 a.m., and a con-
voy of emergency vehicles left
the beach.
The Coast Guard helicopter
continued searching until about
2 a.m., and a Coast Guard boat
continued until about 3 a.m.,
when the fog made it impos-
sible to continue. According to
a statement from Coast Guard
oficials, a boat crew returned
to the area at about sunrise
Thursday, and stayed until
about 9:30 a.m., when they
made the dificult decision to
suspend the search.
“Our thoughts go out to the
family and friends of the miss-
ing woman,” said Capt. David
Berliner, deputy commander
at Coast Guard Sector Colum-
bia River. “The decision to sus-
pend a search and rescue case
is the hardest decision I make
as a leader and Coast Guards-
man, but I also know our crews
did everything they could have
done to have a better outcome.”
Responders said that it can
take anywhere from days to
weeks to recover the body
of a drowning victim, and
some never return to shore.
Paciic County Coroner Mark
McClain said oficials will
likely wait to see if the woman
can be recovered before declar-
ing her dead. In the meantime,
the Paciic County Sheriff’s
Ofice is handling the investi-
gation of the incident.
Long Beach Volunteer Fire
Department Chief Matt Bon-
ney, a longtime ire volunteer
who grew up on the Peninsula,
said the incident had deeply
affected many of the respond-
ers who helped out. He noted
that some of the same people
also responded to an early sum-
mer incident in which a mid-
dle school girl from Oregon
drowned, and a summer 2014
incident in which a 10-year-old
girl drowned and her younger
brother narrowly survived.
“We feel it when we can’t
recover someone. It’s always
hard. It doesn’t matter how old
they are. It sticks with you,”
Bonney said. “… we feel for
the family. We just want them
to know they’re not alone in
the loss.”
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