THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 21, 1995 TAG: 9509210412
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: KILL DEVIL HILLS LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
Despite daring efforts to save him, a Pennsylvania man drowned Wednesday while swimming in the seething surf in front of scores of bystanders.
Minutes earlier, his wife and daughter, who were floating on a boogie board just inside the big breakers, had been pulled to safety by determined rescuers.
A lifeguard on a Jet Ski tried to get to the man through churning, chest-high waves. But the powerful currents kept capsizing the motorized craft.
Five rescue swimmers attempted to pull him in. But by the time they fought their way through the riptides, he was floating face-down. One lifeguard even attempted to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while towing the body back to the beach - but to no avail.
A medical examiner pronounced 38-year-old Thomas D. Nizankiewicz dead shortly after 11:30 a.m.
His wife, Laura, and his daughter were released from Outer Banks Medical Center a few hours later. A teenage son was unharmed. The New Castle, Penn., family had been vacationing at the Outer Banks Beach Club all week and were in the ocean between Atlantic and Martin streets Wednesday.
``We were just lying here, enjoying the sun, when we started hearing ladies screaming down by the water,'' said Paul Berwaldt, a 42-year-old firefighter from Baltimore. ``At first, I couldn't tell if they were just having fun. Then, I heard their calls, `Help! Help!' So I ran down there and swam out to the girl, who looked about 12.
``It was terrible trying to get out. For every two feet I swam, the currents pulled me back six or eight feet. I was apprehensive. I didn't know if I was going to make it back in once I got out there.''
Berwaldt said when he dove into the surf, the father was standing in shallow breakers. By the time he reached the daughter, the undertow had pulled the father into deep water.
``She was screaming, `Get my father out. Please, get him, too.' But I wasn't going back in. It was just too rough,'' Berwaldt said. ``It makes me feel good that I got the girl. But I wish I could've gotten him, too.''
About 150 people watched the rescue attempt from beach blankets and oceanfront decks. Because the son, who bystanders estimated was about 15 years old, got out of the water on his own, lifeguards were not sure whether they should search for another body after finding the father.
Clutching binoculars and long-lens cameras, rescuers spent about a half hour scanning the frothy sea for signs of life. A Coast Guard helicopter circled the water, searching. But only patches of seaweed and leaping dolphins appeared on the waves.
By the time the father was pronounced dead, someone told the lifeguards that the boy was safely with his grandmother at the Outer Banks Medical Center.
Dare County Emergency Medical Services Director Harry Seymour said the waves were ``rolling the father around like a ball'' when rescue workers first arrived on the scene.
``They told me he was in the water for 12 minutes. But drownings can happen like that,'' Seymour said, snapping his fingers. ``It depends on how much water you suck up - and how strong the currents are.''
Although the waves were not big Wednesday, rip currents and the undertow were extremely strong. Lifeguard Beach Services President Bob Gabriel, who has worked with Outer Banks water rescue operations for 13 years, said, ``This was one of the worst rips I've ever been in.''
Gabriel and other lifeguards who swam out during the rescue attempt received medical attention after arriving back on shore.
``It's not the size of the waves. It's the sheer volume, the massive currents and the unpredictable riptides,'' said Gabriel, whose ribs were bruised. ``There shouldn't have been anyone in that water. It was much too rough. We all got beaten up pretty bad. You couldn't see anything once you got out. By the time we got to where we'd seen him, he was gone. We had him on a number of occasions. But we got the dickens beat out of us and just couldn't hold him. That water hurt.''
During summer months, when lifeguards patrol the beaches in Nags Head and sit atop fixed stands in Kill Devil Hills, officials erect red ``No Swimming'' flags whenever they deem the waves too rough. Regular lifeguard patrols, however, ended after Labor Day weekend. So there were no flags flying Wednesday morning when the Nizankiewicz family made its initial foray into the Atlantic.
``We don't put flags up because we don't have lifeguards out there now. And we don't want to give people the impression that the beaches are being guarded,'' Gabriel said. ``We do have roving guards out there now. One had just gone by that beach access 10 minutes before we got the rescue call. No one was in the water then.''
Nags Head Fire Chief Tim Morris said his water rescue workers don't erect the flags unless they plan regular patrols. ``In lieu of what happened today, we'll look into doing the flags year-round,'' Morris said Wednesday. ``The problem is, those flags are the most sought-after souvenirs around. Without guards to watch them, they disappear. We lost 11 in less than one hour on a single day this summer.''
Nizankiewicz was the second Pennsylvania man to drown at the Outer Banks this year while swimming with his family. In July, a 37-year-old vacationer from New Kensington, Pa., drowned in Hatteras Inlet while trying to save his 10- and 12-year-old sons from a rip current. Other family members saved the boys.
A young boy drowned in Duck this summer, too, after a log rolled on top of him while he was playing close to shore in the Atlantic. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by J. AARON TROTMAN
Above, rescuer Mike Hunter, a fireman from Kill Devil Hills,
receives oxygen from Charlie Watson of Dare County Emergency
Services. Below right, head of Lifeguard Beach Services Bob Gabriel
is led to a waiting truck by two emergency services personnel after
his rescue efforts.
KEYWORDS: DROWNING OUTER BANKS by CNB