Rip Current — Southeast Suffolk, New York

2016-06-24 · Southeast Suffolk, New York

Event narrative

Tom Surdyke, 18, from Missouri died on Tuesday night June 28, after fighting for his life at Stony Brook Hospital. The West Point cadet was pulled, unresponsive, from the ocean at Coopers Beach in Southampton Village on Friday afternoon June 24th. Mr. Surdyke was a cadet at West Point military academy.

According to a female eyewitness, Mr. Surdyke and another individual got caught in a rip current. She said the two men were on a sandbar when one screamed for help, as he held Mr. Surdyke up out of the water. The eyewitness said no lifeguards were on duty. Someone finally ran up the beach to a man with a paddle board, she said, who went out to the two men. Both were pulled out of the water, although Mr. Surdyke was unresponsive. When they finally got Mr. Surdyke to shore, about five people began administering CPR.

Southampton Ambulance Chief Rick Fowler said a call came in at 3:58 p.m. for a swimmer in distress. Twenty seven seconds later, a paramedic was in route to the scene, and arrived by 4:02 p.m. The paramedic who arrived first, began using a defibrillator on the patient within 6 minutes of the call. Twenty three minutes after taking over CPR, the patient was on his way to the Southampton Hospital.

Wider weather episode

Although high pressure was building into the region on Friday, residual southerly long period swells resulted in a moderate threat for rip current development. This unfortunately resulted in a rip current related drowning of a young male at Coopers Beach late Monday afternoon.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 646371. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.