Couple caught in a riptide
What started as a Canada Day celebration at Cabot Beach Provincial Park could have ended tragically for Jennifer Hubley’s daughter Hannah Crossman and her boyfriend Kurtis Paula.
The Summerside couple was on a sandbar when they quickly got caught in a riptide and pulled out from Malpeque Bay.
“We started out having the greatest Canada Day celebrations and then my granddaughter turns to me and says, ‘mommy fall,” said Hubley, who was on the shore looking after the two-yearold. “Within minutes everything turned into a freak disaster.”
A rip current is a powerful, narrow channel of fast-flowing water which moves directly away from the shore and can occur anywhere with breaking waves.
“I remember the two of them out there splashing and the next thing the lifeguards are rushing out on their paddles. I couldn’t believe it. Everything goes through your mind at the moment. I was watching them suffering and I didn’t know what to do,” said Hubley, adding that about six lifeguards and Island EMS attended the scene. “After about 20 minutes Kurtis was pulled out the water, but Hannah was still out there being swept further and further away from the shoreline.
“After 30 minutes of struggling, two fishing boats came and rescued her. It was such an ordeal. They were both taken to Prince County Hospital in Summerside and had to strip down from hypothermia to keep warm.”
“When I talked to Hannah she said they thought it was just waves and they could swim back, but the current got stronger and started ripping them out further and further. Hannah said that she felt like ‘giving up’. I was in tears, but they both survived thanks to the lifeguards on duty. I really believe too that my dad above was looking out for them. You never think this will happen to you, it’s scary but the positive thing is that they survived.”
Jennifer Hubley
In hospital, Crossman and Paula were checked to see if they had water on their lungs and salt in their blood. They were discharged that evening with a precaution of pneumonia.
“When I talked to Hannah she said they thought it was just waves and they could swim back, but the current got stronger and started ripping them out further and further. Hannah said that she felt like ‘giving up’,” said Hubley.
“I was in tears, but they both survived thanks to the lifeguards on duty. I really believe too that my dad above was looking out for them. You never think this will happen to you, it’s scary but the positive thing is that they survived.”