NEWBURYPORT, Mass. — After a lifeguard rescued a teen trapped in high tide in Newburyport, some are calling for more to be done on that section of the beach.
When the water is out at Plum Island Point, you can walk out onto the sandbar and fish or enjoy the sand. But when the tide comes in, it comes in quickly and you could be trapped.
"These are some of the worst currents on the whole coast and so very, very dangerous," lifeguard Drew Brewer said.
A family from out of state learned that the hard way when they went out on this sandbar at Plum Island Point Beach Wednesday and got caught after the tide rose.
"There were four people who were swept off. Three were able to make it back with minimal assistance, but there was a 14-year-old female who could not make it back," Brewer said.
The girl's stepfather had tried to save the girl, but failed. Brewer was called in to help head lifeguard Matt Hayden posted at the nearest station.
Brewer helped three of the family members on the beach, while Hayden made a split second decision to go for the girl.
"There wouldn't have been any lag time between her being swept up and him getting in the water," Brewer said.
The current made it no easy job.
"You cannot swim against the current," Brewer said. "Usually, you'll have to enter at an angle, that way you can actually get to the person without having to fight the current, you can try go with the current the best you can."
Luckily everyone made it to the shore okay. Shaken up, but not injured.
"Very, very thankful," Brewer said. "Handshake and a hug. It was great."
This is not the first family to fall victim to this stretch of beach, and it's even taken some lives.
In 2010, a Lynn woman was killed when she and seven of her friends were swept all the way into the Merrimack River.
Richie Zartarian, with Captain's Fishing Cruises, remembers that rescue.
"When the tide's coming in, it'll cover the sandbar right over; fast," Zartarian said.
He says he urged the town to put up no swimming signs by the stretch of beach.
"The sandabr is a nice place to walk out on when it's low tide, but you gotta pay attention to the tide and the currents," Zartarian said.
It's good advice and brewer says guards posted in the area make sure it's heeded and keep the numbers of rescues like this week's low.
"One or two a year is regular, but I attribute that mostly to us preventing a lot of these things before they actually do happen," said Brewer.