Six drown, dozens rescued along beaches in Panhandle
By Associated Press
Published June 10, 2003
GRAYTON BEACH - People were yelling, "Call 911! We need help!" A young surfer in the Gulf of Mexico heard the commotion and saw people pointing to a spot about 50 yards away.
Theo Laurent, 16, swiftly paddled his board there and found two men floating face-down in the roiling surf. He turned them over and struggled to keep their heads above water.
One of the men, former CNN journalist Larry LaMotte, was among six who drowned Sunday and Monday on Florida Panhandle beaches. The other, Ken Brindley, of Conway, Ark., was one of four swimmers who remained at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola on Monday.
"When I got to both of those guys, they were 100 percent unconscious," Laurent said Monday. "There was nothing, no response at all."
Nearly 40 other people were rescued along a 30-mile stretch of beach in two counties Sunday. Brindley, listed in critical condition, had tried to save LaMotte, said Walton County sheriff's spokesman Dennis Wise. LaMotte, 60, of Atlanta joined CNN in 1980 and was one of the cable network's first bureau chiefs in Dallas. He later headed bureaus in Los Angeles and Washington. He no longer worked for CNN, spokeswoman Megan Mahoney said.
The others who drowned Sunday:
Marietta Yakstis, 62, of Illinois, at Eastern Lake.
David Huang, 40, of Houston, at Fort Panic at Dune Allen Beach.
Curtis Corhan, 53, of Bunker Creek, at Blue Mountain Beach.
Marla Amos, 31, of Sellersburg, Ind., at Destin, in Okaloosa County.
Monday's death:
David Victor Dotson, 66, of Milton, off Pensacola Beach in Escambia County.
It was the worst day in memory for Walton County, where at least 32 rescues were made and four of the victims, including LaMotte, drowned, said Michael P. Kane, deputy chief of the South Walton Fire District. Usually shifting winds had been blowing steadily from the southwest for several days, causing waves to reach 4 to 5 feet, said Brad Pickel, beach manager for Beaches of South Walton, a tourist development agency.
Thunderstorms kept most people out of the water until Sunday when the sun came out.
The waves sent walls of water over sandbars toward shore. It had nowhere to go but back into the gulf through channels between the sand bars, creating rapid underwater rivers known as rip currents, said Pickel.
The currents pull swimmers out to sea. Trying to swim against the current usually is futile, resulting in exhaustion and panic. Experts advise swimming parallel to shore to get out of the current, but many tourists are ignorant of that advice.
Red flags warning people to stay out of the water were flying on the beaches where the drownings happened. Some people ignored them, and others got into trouble when they tried to help swimmers caught in the currents.
"You see people out there, and it's a fun time," Kim Hudgens, 35, of Columbus, Ga., said Monday. She was in the water with her four children Sunday and witnessed LaMotte's drowning.
"Yes, we saw the red flag and we ignored it, and I'm sad to say that," she said.
After the first drowning, a sheriff's helicopter flew over the beach with a loudspeaker warning people to get out of the water. So did firefighters, between rescues. Most swimmers got out but many later returned, Kane said.
"It's kind of like, "Mom's not watching,' " he said. "Outside of personally grabbing people and physically dragging them to shore, I don't know what the heck we can do."
Walton County has no lifeguards. Kriss Titus, executive director of Beach of South Walton, paused a long time when asked why.
"Drownings are not something that happens often," she finally said. "The red flag system, the signage and brochures have worked so far."
Walton had only one drowning this year before Sunday, none last year and only two since 1996.
About 50 miles west of Walton, 21 people have drowned over the past 21/2 years off Santa Rosa Island, all on unguarded beaches and most victims of rip currents.
Laurent, a teen of about 135 pounds, said a sheriff's helicopter circled overhead as he tried to hold the victims' heads above water until another man swam out to help.
"He was a tourist and he was coughing and stuff, so I just told him to go in because he was going to seriously drown, too," Laurent said. "I was trying my hardest not to drown because, like, the waves were crashing over me."
Finally, two men came on surfboards and took over until fire and sheriff's rescuers arrived.
