Posted on 03/08/2013 4:45:13 AM PST by Doogle
A 65-year old woman was killed when a giant wave struck two American tourists strolling on the beach near the famous stone arch in the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas.
U.S. State Department officials on Thursday confirmed the death of Sandra Dilland, who was returning to her hotel at Cabo San Lucas along with her unidentified 70-year-old companion when the couple was struck by a rogue wave and dragged out to sea on Tuesday.
Dilland was declared dead and the man was listed in serious condition on Wednesday following a rescue by Navy personnel, the Associated Press reports.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
...here’s a YT example of what happens.....the wind is really kicking up too..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njAJEOjhr_U
ping
this is at least the second American who has been killed in recent months by a rogue wave while on a Mexican beach walk
You never know the day or the hour
A total of 61 U.S. citizens have drowned in Mexico from January 2010 through June 2012
A total of 61 U.S. citizens have drowned in Mexico from January 2010 through June 2012.
Rogue wave epidemic! Where is the government?!?!
Been there. There are some jetty rocks on the beach where every 15-20 waves or so a wave wipes the jetty clean. So anyone on the rocks gets swept off. Amazing to see.
how many drowned while walking on a beach, not swimming?
“how many drowned while walking on a beach, not swimming?”
________________________________________________________
That would be quite strange, unless there was a massive storm.
I now live on a beach, but only a typhoon would make it anything close to dangerous.
Not only the elderly, ANYBODY. The linked video is very close to what is seen all the time on the Pacific coast north of the arch at Cabo San Lucas. We stayed at a resort there in walking distance of the arches, “Playa Grande.” They had big signs, like 4X8 feet, every 100 yards or so.
PELIGRO! DANGER! UNDERTOW! DO NOT SWIM! DO NOT WADE! SEVERE DROWNING RISK!
With cartoons of people being pounded and drowning under massive “beach break” waves. The problem is the very steep beach gradient. The waves don’t break “out there,” but the swell comes all the way in to what was “wading depth,” and then BAMMO! Suddenly there is mountainous plunging wave coming down on your head. This enormous volume of instant water then rushes right down that steep gradient, taking you with it. It’s extremely dangerous. The resort had excellent pools, but we were constantly advised “Don’t even put your ankles in that ocean water!” And then to back it up, they had the world’s scariest “NO SWIMMING! DANGER!” signs spaced along the beach.
But if you walk past the resorts south to the arches, there are no more signs. The beach is safer from the arches around to the resorts facing southward, but they are still dangerous.
But north of the arches, facing west to the open Pacific, that plunging beach break can literally kill you, either breaking your spine as you are slammed, and / or dragging your body down the extremely steep beach and drowning you.
I am an old Navy SEAL and I’ve been in plenty of big surf, but that plunging beach break would kill anybody.
Lost our son to a rogue wave in Australia in 2008...the boys were climbing on the rocks by the beach in Frasier Park on Father’s Day. He was never found. There is a monument there to the many people that have lost their lives...yes, here one day and bam gone the next just like the young many in the sink hole in Florida. Jeremy knew where he was going and proudly wore his life’s motto on his chest...Philippians 1.21 for me to live is Christ to die is gain. onetwentyone.com
It’s not a beach like your beach. It’s a beach with such a steep gradient, that if it was utterly calm, it would be six feet deep no more than ten feet from the static, calm waterline.
But it’s never calm. The Pacific swells come rolling in, they don’t look dangerous at all when 50’ out in very deep water. But between 10’ out and where tourists are walking with just their ankles wet, all of the energy is released. What you see at a normal beach with a wave rising and breaking over about 100’, all happens in that last ten feet. Up, plunge BOOM! You can be lifted, slammed “over the falls” into the bottom, break your neck, fill your lungs with water, adn they you are carried down that 30* or 40* gradient out to drown. Watch the video at the top of the thread. Those laughing folks were in great danger. And it gets worse than that.
I’m very sorry to hear that. These crazy local wave conditions can be very, very dangerous. At Cabo on the west-facing beaches with the steep gradients and plunging surf, they had unmissable “EXTREME DANGER!” signs like the ones I described above, so folks would know not only not to swim, but not even to wade or get near the water. Any beach with such conditions needs those signs. Tourists canot be expected to know the local extreme danger.
It’s almost like a mini-tsunami
The strength of the water grabs you and you’re gone
I just stumbled on a 7part youtube video about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and it was horrible
LOL!
Oh No. How horrible. My heart goes out to you and the rest of your family.
I got to part 3 or so and I got sick to my stomach; couldn't watch the rest.
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