Odd story about a clam digger who got stuck in mud, almost drowned

[uppityperson]

I remember reading about an incident like this in AK yrs back, but the person died. This man was quite lucky, they used the same technique that is now used other places. So, public safety warning, beware mud flats and tides.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004404909_clamdigger10m.html

Harold Thomas wasn't having any luck finding clams Thursday afternoon. So, the lifelong clammer ventured farther onto the mud flats at Penrose Point State Park on the Key Peninsula and started digging in the muck for a geoduck.

As he tried to wrestle a giant clam from its burrow, Thomas felt himself sinking. He pulled his right foot out of its rubber boot, but that just made his left foot sink deeper. As he tried to pull his left ankle free, Thomas' right foot became stuck in the mud.He tried to dig himself out with a shovel, but that didn't work. His wife, Carol, wrapped her arms around him and pulled. Nothing. Two women came to help, then a man and his son. Thomas didn't budge. And the tide was coming in.

(clip)
The boat arrived, but even then, rescuers couldn't pull Thomas from the mud. The water lapped at his shoulders.

Then Wolverton had an idea: "I don't know how it came to me," he said Friday. "... I don't think they all had faith in my theory. They all gave me the eyebrow." Wolverton connected a 200-foot long fire hose to the boat's fire pump. At the other end, he attached a 4-foot-long penetrating nozzle, a rod-shaped piece of equipment firefighters use to bust through roofs to pour water on a blaze. The firefighters stuck the nozzle into the sand around Thomas' legs, and the "turbulent action" from the pressurized water finally broke "the suction that was holding him there," he said... (more)

[XemaSab]

1. Don't think this is a freak thing

People die in the US every year stuck in mudflats when the tide comes in.

If you start to sink in the mud, SIT DOWN and distribute your weight. You can dig yourself out, but it's exhausting. The goal is to break the suction, and it can take a while.

I got stuck in mud a few years ago... I was walking out on an apparently solid mudflat... I took a step and went in up to my ankles, and I took another step and I was in knee deep and sinking fast. By the time I finally started to get myself out, I was in up to my thighs and it was getting dark. Fortunately it wasn't tidal, so there was no risk of the tide coming in, but it was scary.

It's QUICKSAND and needs to be taken very seriously.

/public service announcement

[nosmokes]

2. sheesh! I never thought about it before

but I can easily see how this could happen to someone and yeah, while it's funny at first blush it just goes to show that nature always has the upper hand. I hope the dude at least got some chowder outta the ordeal. Thanks for the post.

[grasswire]

3. I saw the remedy on Man v. Wild just yesterday!

He was in the Florida swamps. He deliberately got stuck in one of those quicksand/mud places and got down to about mid-chest. Here's how he got out. He held the ends of his walking stick in both hands and put it on the mud as far in front as he could reach, then leaned into it and wiggled himself forward on it. He sort of crabwalked forward on it.

[Buns_of_Fire]

4. The moral being: Always have a walking stick with you!

And if there's no loam or mud or swamp or quicksand nearby, you can always use it to ward off Bear when his adventures take him across your back yard, looking for food, and he starts to bite the head off your chihuahua for sustenance! :-)

(Hey, he's a growing boy. He eats EVERYTHING!)

[MercutioATC]

5. Yes, but he'll be considerate enough to drink his own urine...

...instead of asking for a drink.

[XemaSab]

6. Alternate method:

Wiggle out on your butt. :P