Ocean waters at Cape Hatteras National Seashore are inviting, but can be dangerous, as evidenced by the death Wednesday of a North Carolina man/Kurt Repanshek file
Summer officially is still a couple weeks off, yet already three swimmers have died at Cape Hatteras National Seashore on North Carolina's Outer Banks. On Wednesday, two 55-year-old men were pulled from the water but could not be revived. Their deaths followed that of a 79-year-old man on Sunday.
On Wednesday morning, park dispatch staff received a 911 call at 10 a.m. morning to alert them to the day's first incident. According to a park release, the man, from Benson, North Carolina, was first observed on a small sandbar approximately 50 yards from the beach, south of the Frisco Day Use Area.
"An unrelated male bystander, after hearing a call for help from the individual’s family, entered the water and attempted to provide assistance. Before the male bystander was able to reach the sandbar, the 55-year-old male was swept away from the sandbar by what may have been a rip current," the release continued. "The male bystander retrieved the individual after his body returned closer to the shore. Once the male bystander brought the individual back to the beach, an unrelated female bystander attempted compression CPR."
The victim was not wearing a personal flotation device, according to the park release.
Later Wednesday afternoon, park dispatch received another 911 call, this time alerting them to a North Brookfield, Massachuetts, man found floating three feet from the shore near Ramp 70 on Ocracoke Island without a flotation device. CPR was started by a bystander and continued by emergency staff, but to no avail.
The victim on Sunday was swimming near the north end of Buxton, also without a PFD. It was not known if he was pulled from shore by a rip tide.
There were seven swimming-related fatalities at the seashore in 2017, and eight in 2016.
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