Nearly 2,000 rescued at O.C. beaches

Nearly 2,000 rescued at O.C. beaches

By LAYLAN CONNELLY / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Published: Sept. 4, 2012 Updated: Aug. 21, 2013 12:28 p.m.

 

Lifeguards along the 42-mile coastline in Orange County were busy throughout the holiday weekend, as big waves, strong rip currents, and end-of-summer crowds flocked to the beach.
Thousands were rescued at the major beaches along the coastline, with everything from dislocated shoulders to cervical injuries – but most of the rescues came from strong rip currents that pulled people into dangerous situations.
Rescuers on Monday afternoon called off their search for a swimmer who went missing off Salt Creek Beach on Sunday. Efforts were being made Tuesday to find the body of the 34-year-old man, identified as Frank Daniel Austin, 34, of Rowland Heights. Read the full story here.
One of the more dramatic rescues happened about 11 a.m. on Sunday at Huntington City Beach. A fisherman jumped off the pier – fully clothed down to his tennis shoes – and clung to the barnacle-covered pier piling before an off-duty lifeguard surfing out in the area saw him.
The lifeguard, Tony Morelli, reached the man and put him on his surfboard while the rescue boat was on its way.
On the lifeguard boat, Marine Safety Officer Mike Bartlett arrived with rescuers, and just as they were pulling the man into the boat, Tower 0 on the pier called in with a warning that a big set was on its way.
"The sets were feathering, probably one of the biggest sets of the day, over 10 foot," Bartlett said. "There's no question in my mind that that fisherman would not have survived that set."
Bartlett also credited Morelli, the rookie lifeguard, for acting fast, and said there's no question that he saved the man's life.
The fisherman told lifeguards that he jumped off the pier because he got too hot. When Huntington Beach police officers greeted him on the sand to give him a citation for jumping off the pier, they ran his records – which showed an arrest warrant – and he was taken into custody.
"We were very fortunate. We have so many people who come here who aren't good swimmers to begin with, or don't know how to swim at all," Bartlett said. "We do so much prevention, and try to go early and be preventive. We did a lot of really big mass rescues, we got really lucky."
In Newport Beach, one of the big rescues came when a teenage boy was stuck in 10-foot waves and a rescue boat had to pull him out and get him to safety on the pier. There was also a big rescue with a rip current on Sunday at about 6 p.m., with several victims being pulled out to sea. That rescue lasted 22 minutes, compared to most rescues that only take three to four minutes, said Newport lifeguard chief Jim Turner.
Each agency tallies their stats a bit different, but here are figures on rescues and preventive actions from the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend from the major beaches along the O.C. coastline:

Seal Beach
125 rescues
16 medical aides
1 major medical aid, cervical neck injury
4 boat rescues.
Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beach:
279 rescues
937 preventative actions
5 major medicals
74 minor medicals
13 lost persons
Huntington City Beach:
424 rescues
6,043 preventative actions
32 medical aids
1,014 law enforcement warnings
16,435 public contacts
Newport Beach
296 rescues
208 medical aids
14 major medical aids
290 public contacts
Laguna Beach
502 rescues
11,000 prevents
20,000 public contacts
600 minor medical aids
15 advanced life support
San Clemente:
113 rescues
2,411 preventive actions
19 first aid
341 ordinance/law enforcements