Man dead after weekend of water rescues in Clatsop County

SEASIDE Ore. (KPTV) - Over the weekend, one person drowned and several others were rescued in four separate incidents in Clatsop County.

When Brandon Miller saw three swimmers struggling to hold onto a boogie board out from a Seaside beach on Sunday afternoon, he didn’t hesitate.

“They were pretty spent from trying to get back in, and slowly but surely, they were getting further out,” Miller said.

A day before at this very beach off Sixth Avenue, a 50-year-old man died after being caught in a rip current.

On Saturday at 2:30 p.m., a Seaside rescue crew assisted three city lifeguards and multiple bystanders who had been trying to help the man and a teenage girl in distress. Using jet skis, rescuers were able to bring both victims back to shore.

The man was unconscious by the time he made it out of the waves, and a bystander, Barb Stein, said she watched the rescuers attempt to revive him.

“The young lifeguard was doing CPR on him and he never stopped,” Stein said.

The man and girl were taken to Providence Seaside Hospital where the man was pronounced dead.

About 45 minutes later, another water rescue occurred about 10 miles south at Cannon Beach.

And then again at Seaside at around 4:30 p.m. Saturday, lifeguards rescued two swimmers in distress at the beach off Avenue U.

One of the swimmers in the second Seaside rescue, a 27-year-old female, told emergency responders that, “they were in waist-deep water one minute, and struggling in water over their heads the next.”

On Sunday, when Miller saw the three swimmers struggling to hold onto a boogie board a couple hundred yards from shore, he said he didn’t hesitate to jump into the water and swim out to them.

“As soon as I saw glimpse of them, no hesitation, just do what you got to do to help,” Miller said. “Told one guy to grab my hand and we just made it in together.”

They reached the shore just as lifeguards and emergency crews arrived.

Emergency responders said rip currents were only part of the reason for the string of four rescues in two days. Genesee Dennis with Seaside Fire & Rescue said the water temperatures were over 60 degrees which was luring people deeper into the treacherous currents.

“We are experiencing currently, really warm temperatures in the water so people are going out further, they are getting braver and getting into situations, that otherwise, if the water was cold, they would not,” Dennis said. “Two in two days, and one person is gone, it just very – makes you appreciate life.”

Ocean safety:

• Always swim or play by the ocean with a buddy, never alone.
• To escape a rip current, try to swim parallel to the beach.
• Know your swimming skills.
• Always be ready to call 911 if you see someone in trouble.
• To learn more about rip currents and how to recognize them, visit the Seaside website.

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