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Tag: United States Coast Guard
American tourist dies, U.S. Marine missing in separate incidents off Puerto Rico coast
The U.S. Coast Guard said Thursday it is searching for a U.S. Marine who went swimming in high surf off Puerto Rico’s northeast coast while on vacation, while another American tourist died in a separate incident in the dangerous surf.
Officials identified the missing Marine as 26-year-old Samuel Wanjiru from Massachusetts and said he was visiting the island with his family. He went missing Wednesday afternoon after going into the water at La Pared beach in Luquillo. Video posted on social media by Puerto Rico’s Bureau of Emergency Management and Disaster Administration showed divers jump from a helicopter in search for the man.
Also on Wednesday, another American tourist died in northwest Puerto Rico after authorities said he rescued his teenage children who had been swept away by heavy surf.
“This month has been deadly when it comes to beach drownings in the area of Puerto Rico,” said Capt. Jose E. Díaz, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard Sector San Juan. “People need to realize that the situation is serious enough to limit our ability to respond to search and rescue cases with surface vessels without further endangering our crews and assets. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who have lost their loved ones to the sea, we hope they find strength during this most difficult time.”
A high surf advisory was issued late Tuesday for Puerto Rico’s northwest, north and northeast coasts and will remain in effect until late Thursday, with waves of up to 12 feet (4 meters).
Díaz noted that most open ocean beaches in Puerto Rico do not have lifeguards.
6 missing Baltimore bridge workers presumed dead, Coast Guard says
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Dramatic video shows 3 fishermen clinging to buoy off Nantucket rescued by Coast Guard helicopter crew
Three fishermen who were not wearing life jackets were plucked alive from ocean waters by the Coast Guard five miles east of Nantucket off the Cape Cod coast this weekend, officials said Tuesday.
At about 12:48 p.m. on Saturday, the First Coast Guard District command center received an alert from an emergency radio beacon registered to the 55-foot commercial fishing vessel Miss Kara.
A Jayhawk helicopter crew based out of Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod and a 47-foot lifeboat crew based out of Coast Guard Station Brandt Point in Nantucket responded. Just after 2 p.m. the Jayhawk crew discovered all three fishermen clinging to a buoy.
The three were safely hoisted aboard the helicopter and flown to Hyannis Airport, where they were treated by emergency medical workers.
A video released by the Coast Guard show the men being pulled onto the helicopter one by one as it hovered above the Atlantic waters.
The emergency beacon was crucial to the rescue, according to Lt. Cmdr. Kristi Butler, search and rescue coordinator for the First Coast Guard District.
“This positive outcome demonstrates the importance of maintaining vital lifesaving equipment onboard your vessel,” Butler said.
The rescue came on the same day that a 25-year-old man was saved from his partially submerged fishing boat after being stranded at sea for over 24 hours off the Florida coast. Charles Gregory’s father told CNN that his son “struggled to stay alive” as he spotted sharks and endured jellyfish stings while exposed to the hot Florida sun.
Fishermen have been plucked from the Atlantic Ocean near Nantucket before. In 2019, a fisherman was rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter about 120 nautical miles off the island. In 2014, Coast Guard crew members rescued four fishermen about 25 miles southeast of Nantucket, after their boat started taking on water.
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U.S. Coast Guard rescues Charles Gregory from partially submerged boat after he was stranded off Florida coast
A 25-year-old man was rescued from his partially submerged fishing boat over the weekend after being stranded at sea off the Florida coast, authorities said.
U.S. Coast Guard officers found the man, identified as Charles Gregory, about 12 miles off the coast of St. Augustine, Florida, on Saturday following an extensive search that involved multiple law enforcement agencies and lasted through the night Friday.
The Coast Guard airplane crew that initially spotted Gregory drifting in his small jon boat recorded a video of the rescue, and the agency later shared it online. It shows Gregory sitting in the small vessel with his feet near the bow, which was dipping into the ocean and filled with water. A jon boat is a lightweight, flat-bottomed fishing boat typically made of fiberglass, wood or aluminum.
A Coast Guard cutter crew pulled Gregory from the boat, and he was transferred to another crew involved in the search and rescue effort before being taken back to shore, the Coast Guard said in a news release issued on Saturday. No medical concerns were reported, according to the agency.
The agency confirmed the rescue in a tweet, marking the last in a series of updates posted about their search for Gregory.
Gregory’s family had reported him missing on Friday evening, the Coast Guard said, when he did not return to the Lighthouse Park Boat Ramp as expected.
“@USCG crews and partner agencies are searching for 25-year-old Charles Gregory, who was last seen departing the Lighthouse Park Boat Ramp on a 12-foot jon boat, Thursday night,” the Coast Guard said in an initial tweet on Friday night.
The man’s father, Raymond Gregory, said in comments to CNN after the rescue that his son had departed from the boat ramp during the early hours of Friday morning for a fishing trip, as he had done a number of times in the past, and was tossed from the boat by rough tides that rose faster than he anticipated.
Although Gregory was able to hoist himself back into the fishing boat, he was swept out to sea, his father said. Raymond Gregory told CNN that his son “struggled to stay alive” as he spotted sharks and endured jellyfish stings while exposed to the hot Florida sun.
“He was scared to death,” he said, according to the outlet. “He said he’s had more conversations with God in that 30 hours than he’s had his whole life.”
Gregory’s father said his son was home resting when he spoke to CNN.
“He’s exhausted, he’s dehydrated and is suffering from rhabdomyolysis,” Raymond Gregory said. Rhabdomyolysis is characterized by “the breakdown of damaged muscle cells” resulting in the release of contents from those muscle cells into the blood, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which notes that the condition can cause serious health problems and says risk factors include heat exposure, physical exertion and direct trauma.