She told AM it all happened very quickly and was "a bit of a shock".īy chance, a postcard Bray had on her wall as a child was how she was able to react so quickly. "Because we can get resources moving, and we would rather turn around and go home then it be a disaster.Bray said her leg became completely swallowed up by the sand but she managed to flop herself onto her stomach, roll sideways and pull herself out. “If you think that there’s an issue, if you think that there even might be an issue, call," she said. Peterson urged people to call 911 as soon as possible. Another department - about an hour’s drive away - also responded. Peterson said they got the rescue call after Porter was in serious trouble, and it takes time to mobilize. Joseph Eros died while trying to cross from Fire Island back to Anchorage.Įarlier this month, a man was rescued from the mud flats after one leg became stuck, and he sank to his waist while fishing in Turnagain Arm. His body was never found, the Anchorage newspaper reported. In 1978, an unnamed Air Force sergeant attempting to cross Turnagain Arm was swept away with the leading edge of the tide. She then became stuck when trying to push it out and drowned with the incoming tide. In 1988, newlyweds Adeana and Jay Dickison were gold dredging on the eastern end of the arm when her ATV got stuck in the mud, the Anchorage Daily News reported. There have been other deaths on the mud flats. Some people attempt to walk across Turnagain Arm or walk the 9 miles (14 kilometers) from Anchorage to Fire Island during low tide, sometimes prompting rescue efforts. “I’ve really got to warn people against playing the mud,” Peterson said. Signs are posted warning people of hazardous waters and mud flats. When the tide comes back in, the silt gets wet from the bottom, loosens up and can create a vacuum if a person walks on it. “It looks like it’s solid, but it’s not.” The estuary travels southeast from the Anchorage area and parallels the Seward Highway, the only highway that goes south and delivers tourists from Anchorage to the sportsman’s paradise of the Kenai Peninsula.Īt low tide, Turnagain Arm is known for its mud flats that "can suck you down,” Peterson said. It lies across Turnagain Arm just 22 miles - but a 90-minute drive - from Anchorage. The accident occurred near the community of Hope, a quaint community of about 80 people. “I have been in contact with all my members, and they’re all heartbroken,” Peterson said. Man dies after being shot, crashing into tree in Englewood “But you have to remember that it’s Mother Nature, and she has no mercy for humanity.” “It’s big, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, and it’s overwhelming,” Kristy Peterson, the administrator and lead EMT for the Hope-Sunrise Volunteer Fire Department, said of Alaska. Many more have been rescued, including someone who was fishing there last month. At least three other people have gotten stuck and drowned there over the years. At low tide, the estuary is known for its dangerous mud flats made of silt created by glacier-pulverized rocks. The accident was the latest tragedy at Turnagain Arm, a 48-mile-long (77-kilometer-long) estuary carved out long ago by glaciers that travels southeast from the Anchorage area and parallels a major highway. A member of Porter's group called 911 when they couldn't get him out, but it was too late, authorities said. Zachary Porter, 20, of Lake Bluff, Illinois, was submerged Sunday evening as the tide came in, and his body was recovered Monday morning, Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Austin McDaniel told The Associated Press. A suburban Lake Bluff man who was walking on tidal mud flats with friends in an Alaska estuary got stuck up to his waist in the quicksand-like silt and drowned as the tide came in before frantic rescuers could extract him, authorities said.
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