Two American students were killed when they were swept away by a huge sneaker wave on a beach in Santa Cruz County, south of San Francisco.
Journalist at HLN
The incident happened last Wednesday. Mahial Sran, 20, who was studying at San Jose State University, and Harshita Nair, 21, who was studying at UC Berkeley, had gone to the beach to relax. According to initial reports, they were sleeping when disaster struck, but a witness later contradicted this.
It is certain that they were swept away by a huge wave. Capt. Kyle Breton of the Santa Cruz County Fire Department said the women were likely trapped by the rising tide. It may have been a ‘sneaker wave’, an unexpectedly large wave.
Passage
“One of the problems here is that the access to Panther Beach is a ‘keyhole’. Once the tide rises or is too high, the passage becomes inaccessible. People pass by thinking they are in for a nice day at the beach, but suddenly they get cut off and their options for getting out are exhausted very quickly. That’s what happened that day,” Breton said.
The emergency services sent eight rescue swimmers into the water and allowed several people to keep a lookout on the coast. Both women were found and brought to shore, but neither survived.
Authorities are calling for caution along the coast and stressing that warnings are being issued everywhere about dangerous beach conditions.