http://www.nwfdailynews.com/ne...owning-family-in-pcb

Amazing human chain formed to rescue drowning family in PCB



“I honestly thought I was going to lose my family that day,” Roberta Ursrey said. “It was like, ‘Oh God, this is how I’m going.’ ”

PANAMA CITY BEACH — It was supposed to just be a quick trip to the beach, but the Saturday afternoon diversion to the water almost ended in unspeakable tragedy for Roberta Ursrey and her family.

Ursrey and her husband, mother, nephews and sons were enjoying the sun and yellow-flag conditions near the M.B. Miller County Pier. Ursrey herself had just left the water, but when she turned around to look for her sons, she noticed they were much farther from shore than she remembered. Concerned, she started walking down the beach.

And then she heard their screams.

“They were screaming and crying that they were stuck,” Ursrey recalled in an interview Monday. “People were saying, ‘Don’t go out there.’ ”

Unwilling to watch them drown, Ursrey and her family swam out to them, but the rip current was much stronger than they realized and despite her best efforts to escape, they were trapped as well. All in all, Ursrey said there were nine people stuck in about 15 feet of water, including her mother, who suffered a massive heart attack during the ordeal and very nearly died.

“I honestly thought I was going to lose my family that day,” Ursrey said. “It was like, ‘Oh God, this is how I’m going.’ ”

It might have been, had Jessica Simmons and her husband not decided on a last minute, beach-side dinner that afternoon. Or if she hadn’t stopped to pick up leftover trash and happened to grab a discarded boogie board, intending to keep it for when her godchildren visited. But sitting on the sandbar after a quick dip in the water, Simmons realized everyone on the beach was facing a different direction and pointing.

“I automatically thought they had seen a shark,” Simmons said. “I ran back to shore and my husband ran over to them. ... That’s when I knew someone was drowning.”

Simmons isn’t the type of person to stand by and watch someone in distress. Back in Alabama, where she’s from, Simmons said she once walked 11 miles after a tornado to help people clean up their mess and get their lives back together. So when she saw Ursrey’s family in trouble, she grabbed the boogie board and started toward them while her husband and a few other men started a human chain to bring the swimmers back to shore.

“These people are not drowning today,” Simmons remembered telling herself. “It’s not happening. We’re going to get them out.”

As Simmons paddled, the human chain grew, with 80 people stretching over 100 yards out to the distressed swimmers. Some of them couldn’t swim, Simmons said, but wanted to help and stayed in the shallows. Others stood in water up to their necks, waiting for Simmons and her husband to cover the last few feet so they could pass the swimmers to shore.

“I got to the end, and I know I’m a really good swimmer,” Simmons said. “I practically lived in a pool. I knew I could get out there and get to them.”

What Simmons found at the end of the human chain, she said, was shocking. Ursrey’s mother was exhausted, her eyes were rolling back and Simmons remembered her “drinking so much water” and “telling us to just let her go and save us.” Everyone was exhausted, the waves knocking them under. One by one, starting with the children, Simmons and her husband, along with a few other rescuers, towed the swimmers to the human chain, who then pulled them all to shore.

“It was the most remarkable thing to see,” Simmons said. “These people who don’t even know each other and they trust each other that much to get them to safety.”

Ursrey doesn’t remember being rescued, just waking up on shore after she passed out. Her mother, she said, ended up coding in the ambulance, but was was brought back to life and is still in the hospital. Her nephew had a broken hand, but otherwise everyone is recuperating after their ordeal.

“I am so grateful,” Ursrey said. “These people were God’s angels that were in the right place at the right time. I owe my life and my family’s life to them. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”

Looking back, Simmons said it wasn’t so much about what she did to help rescue the family, but everyone dropping what they were doing to help.

“It’s so cool to see how we have our own lives and we’re constantly at a fast pace, but when somebody needs help, everybody drops everything and helps,” Simmons said. “That was really inspiring to see that we still have that.

“With everything going on in the world, we still have humanity,” she added.

An awesome and heroic story. Thanks for posting.

Silent

Never give up and always try one more thing.

Very impressive.

Hard to say exactly - but by that one particular picture it looks like they are in the middle of a rip current.

Notice the waves further away and closer to the foreground but none in the vicinity of the human chain.

The ripply darker-looking water the human chain is standing in is an indicator of a rip moving water back to sea / away from shore.

Could tell better if it was a video...

------------------------------

That's awesome.

Very cool story of human ingenuity and determination.

Anyone else wondering where the picture came from? Drone maybe?

Jim

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
Very cool story of human ingenuity and determination.

Anyone else wondering where the picture came from? Drone maybe?

Jim

They said it occurred near the pier - I'm guessing someone out on the pier took it.

Truly awesome.

Next time I see a story that starts "Florida woman..." I'm going to pay attention. Amazing!

While a great story, I'd be inclined to wave the yellow flag for a couple reasons.

1. No lifeguards on a city/county beach?
2. (More important) If this is a rip tide and 80+ for a human chain - once those in deep water lose footing, they are at the whim of the tide. If the person being rescued has started drifting further out (as a rip tide does), the rescurers would not be able to catch up or move over (either with the tide or against it) to make the rescue. Plus, if the person in need of help were able to stay afloat that long (3 - 5 minutes from the point when mom screams and people are able to react as a team and extend like that), why would the person in help move parallel to shore, escape the rip, and then swim into shore (or, after 5 minutes, sink to the bottom)?

Kind of like trying to save a choking person who can vocally tell you they are choking.

Go to the link. More than a hundred witnesses and video...I'm naturally skeptical as well, however this one is confirmed by literally more than a hundred people and authorities who were on the scene. In addition to the nine people whose lives were saved.

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:
While a great story, I'd be inclined to wave the yellow flag for a couple reasons.

1. No lifeguards on a city/county beach?
2. (More important) If this is a rip tide and 80+ for a human chain - once those in deep water lose footing, they are at the whim of the tide. If the person being rescued has started drifting further out (as a rip tide does), the rescurers would not be able to catch up or move over (either with the tide or against it) to make the rescue. Plus, if the person in need of help were able to stay afloat that long (3 - 5 minutes from the point when mom screams and people are able to react as a team and extend like that), why would the person in help move parallel to shore, escape the rip, and then swim into shore (or, after 5 minutes, sink to the bottom)?

Kind of like trying to save a choking person who can vocally tell you they are choking.

20 year ocean lifeguard here.

No lifeguards because it was probably after hours.

Riptides just don't keep going and going. They may only be a few yards long and just take the person out to where they can't stand. That's when they start freaking out.

The whole "swim parallel to the beach" advice does work, but most people don't have the presence of mind, or swimming ability to actually do that. I've been on hundreds of rescues and I've rarely seen a victim heed that advice. Once panic sets in, they start freaking out and try to get back in to shore.

If there were multiple victims, they were most likely deposited at the end of the rip tide and one may have been trying to help the others stay afloat, which prevents the swimming back in part, which is very difficult without a torpedo buoy and proper training. Usually the rip just carries them out far, and they succumb to fatigue.

I'm glad that they used team work to solve this. I lifeguard at the NJ shore and every year people drown in after hours incidents. It's the saddest when a child is in distress and a parent swims out to help, and they both wind up dying.

Truly awesome !!! Thank you for sharing. God Bless

Having been caught in a PCB RIP tide, I can attest to their severity. We probably would have lost a member of our church youth group if not for my Dad swimming out to get him.