Yesterday, tragedy struck in Hawaii. A father and his six-year-old daughter drowned after being swept off the shore at Makapuu tide pools.
Just after 11 am on July 16th, emergency crews responded to a swimmers in distress call. Witnesses on scene explained that a rogue wave swept the man and his young daughter from the the shoreline.
“There was a huge wave that just swept everybody, all the tide pools and it pulled those two people out and kept taking them farther out and farther out,” said witness Jamie Ngo.
Lifeguards told KHON2 that girl was swept away first, and her father tried to rescue her. After lifeguards reached the man, who was in his 40s and visiting from California, they brought him to Sandy Beach. He was unresponsive at the time.
“There was a man on the back,” said Kanani Horito, another witness. “Right away I could tell his body was limp and kind of lifeless and they started to do CPR on him, and worked on him for at least five minutes.”
Soon after, the six-year-old was brought in. “This time it was this little girl, and she looked like she was maybe not even 7 and totally lifeless, and they did CPR on her for a long time too,” Horito went on.
Conditions at the time of the accident were rough–a high surf advisory was in effect, along with a strong wind. “Definitely on a day like today, it wasn’t for families down there,” said Shayne Enright, Emergency Medical Services and Ocean Safety public information officer. “The conditions were not favorable for anybody to be down there. Kids, adults, it’s too windy there is high surf advisory it’s just best to not even go down into those areas. This whole point from China Walls all the way to Makapuu Tide Pools is extremely dangerous.”
