Frantic dad points rescuers to son swept off California beach. ‘He just drifted away’
A frantic father met rescuers Monday afternoon on a bluff overlooking the Northern California beach where a rogue wave had swept his 12-year-old son away, firefighters say.
“They got to the edge of the cliff, they looked down and they could see there was one juvenile boy about 100 yards into the water,” Cecile Juliette from Cal Fire San Mateo-Santa Cruz Unit told KTVU. “He got sucked under and they didn’t have eyes on him again.”
The search for the boy, identified by his family as Arunay Pruthi of Fremont, has been suspended, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Arunay had been sitting on Cowell Ranch State Beach in Half Moon Bay with his father and 8-year-old brother when a rogue wave swept them into the ocean at 3:45 p.m., KGO reported.
“The surf was really high,” beachgoer Lauren Roberge told the station. “It was actually kind of more like giant waves one after the other, like a washing machine as if you were in the water.”
The turbulent currents pushed Arunay’s father and younger brother back to shore, but they swept the 12-year-old out into the ocean, the East Bay Times reported.
“All of us basically managed to get back but he just drifted away,” said Tarun Pruthi, his father, KTVU reported.
After rescuers spotted Arunay going under, he never resurfaced, KTVU reported. Sheriff’s helicopters searched for him using thermal imaging equipment until after dark.
“They were out there well into the night,” said Rosemerry Blankswade, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department. “But they did not find him.”
The search resumed Tuesday morning before eventually being called off with no sign of the boy, according to the publication.
“This is a very difficult decision to suspend the search,” said Howard Wright of the U.S. Coast Guard, KTVU reported. “The Coast Guard focuses on rescue activities to find a live person and we suspend the search when we are no longer confident that we’re going to be able to rescue the victim.”
The U.S. Coast Guard, which assisted with the search, said waves and swells at the beach reached heights of 10 to 15 feet Monday, according to the station.
“They might have thought they had a good distance between themselves and the water, but it can be that one wave that doesn’t look any different than any other wave until it’s grabbing you by the ankles, knocking you off your feet and pulling you into the water,” Juliette said, the East Bay Times reported.
