A father and his autistic son were rescued by coast guards after spending the night treading water 8 miles off the east coast of Florida for more than 12 hours.
According to firstcoastnews.com, the US Coast Guard reported that 46-year-old Walter Marino and his 12-year-old son Chris, both from Winter Park, Florida, were swimming in the sea at Ponce Inlet in Volusia County, on Saturday night when an outgoing current swept them away.
The Orlando Sentinel said the father went to rescue his son who had swam out too far and they both got swept away with strong tides.
Coast Guards searched for them by boat and helicopter for several hours from late Saturday night into early Sunday morning, then broke off the search and started searching again at dawn on Sunday. They said the tidal currents have been very strong going in an out of the inlet.
At 7.30 am boaters on board the Open Range spotted the father offshore about 8 miles north of Ponce Inlet. He was very distraught because he had not seen his son for several hours and feared the worse, but two hours later a Coast Guard helicopter from Air Station Clearwater spotted Chris treading water about a mile north.
Petty Officer Michael Hulme, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, told the Sentinel:
“We’re very lucky today.”
Walter and Chris were taken to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona, Florida. Chris said he was OK, but felt a bit cold; Walter was treated for dehydration, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
In total, Chris spent 15 hours in the sea. Coast Guard officials said that after this amount of time the chances of being found, even with the latest sophisticated computer assisted methods decrease significantly. When they told Walter his son was alive, he was “ecstatic” they said.
As father and son left the hospital, firstcoastnews.com reported Walter thanking everyone who joined in the search, and saying, “The Coast Guard rocks, God bless the Coast Guard.”
Walter and Chris were able to survive for so long because the water temperature off the coast of Florida at this time of year is not cold. According to the National Geographic Oceanic Data Center, the ocean temperature around Florida is above 80 degrees Fahrenheit (about 27 deg C).
Had they been in colder water, physical exercise such as swimming and treading water would have caused them to lose heat at a much faster rate than just staying still.
According to the The US Search and Rescue Task Force, cold water robs the body’s heat 32 times faster than cold air. Few people can swim a mile in cold water, and if you should find yourself in cold water and not able to get out, you need to decide very quickly whether to try and swim to safety or adopt a defensive posture to conserve heat and wait to be rescued.
Rip currents, which could be what Walter and Chris fell prey to, are where water that washes on the beach has nowhere to go other than flow back into the sea under the force of gravity. The water flows seaward through paths of least resistance, such as breaks in the sand bar.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) warnings of rip currents around Florida, often mention that even when the risk of rip current is low, they could still be strong around jetties and piers.
Sources: firstcoastnews.com, Orlando Sentinel, US Search and Rescue Task Force, NGODC, NOAA.
Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD