‘Family, distressed’

LIHUE — After hearing concerns from a Kauai resident whose daughter-in-law helped a family struggling in the water in Poipu, county officials plan on looking at ways to improve signage at Waiohai beach.

Jeannie McCabe and her daughter-in-law, Mandy McCabe, were snorkeling at Poipu Beach fronting Marriott Waiohai Beach Club with two visiting friends from California on April 26. After becoming separated, Jeannie McCabe noticed her daughter-in-law “limply” raising her hand from the water, she wrote in an email to county officials.

“I leaped up and rushed to her. She was too exhausted to say more than, ‘Family, distressed,’ and pointed out toward the reef,” Jeannie McCabe wrote. “I reeled to face the lifeguard station and raised both hands.”

Seeing no response from the lifeguard, she said she yelled, “Raise your hands” to the nearest person, and then to another group.

“In seconds there were a couple of local men standing thigh-high looking out over the water and at least 40 hands were raised,” McCabe said, adding she “whirled back” and dove in, but never saw the family.

Later, McCabe said her daughter-in-law told her that during the ordeal she kept waving while trying to keep the family calm.

Exhausted and afraid the family might pull her under, Mandy McCabe took the youngest child and made it to shore.

When they were able to touch bottom, Mandy McCabe signaled to her mother-in-law. Moments later, a lifeguard saw all the hands raised and “crossed the sand from the tower as fast as anyone she had ever seen run in sand,” Jeannie McCabe said.

But before the lifeguard arrived on the scene, everyone was safe on land, according to county officials.

After the incident, Jeannie McCabe had phone and in-person conversations and traded emails with various county representatives, including Kauai Fire Department Chief Robert Westerman. She wanted to find out how the lifeguards missed her daughter-in-law’s attempts to get help.

“As a result of those conversations, Chief Westerman assured Ms. McCabe that the county would look at ways that we could improve our signage and prevention efforts — including updating our advertisements and radio — to better educate beachgoers on the fact that there is no lifeguard located at Waiohai beach, and instead urge beachgoers to swim near the lifeguard tower at Poipu Beach Park,” county spokeswoman Sarah Blane wrote in an email.

The basic rule the county shares with the public, she said, is “If you can’t see the lifeguard, the lifeguard can’t see you.”

Blane said Waiohai beach, while next to Poipu Beach Park, is down and around a point, so lifeguards at the Poipu tower have very low visibility of the Waiohai area.

There is a sign along that beach warning the public that they are leaving Poipu Beach Park and entering an area that is not guarded, she said.

But lifeguards make regular checks of the entire stretch of beach, and that includes Waiohai, Blane said. Should a lifeguard see anyone in distress, or is notified of anyone in distress, regardless of location, they will do their best to respond, she said.

Regarding the incident with McCabe’s daughter-in-law, Blane said, a lifeguard noticed people waving their hands in the air as if to get his attention. He immediately responded but once on site, all swimmers had made it to shore on their own and did not appear to need additional medical or additional assistance, she said.

Westerman, Ocean Safety Training Officer Randy Ortiz, Ocean Safety Bureau Supervisor Kalani Vierra and a representative of the Mayor’s Office spoke with McCabe, according to Blane.

She said it appears that McCabe had two major concerns: That there is no lifeguard stand at Waiohai, and the county advertises for beachgoers to swim at Poipu Beach Park.

Blane said the county, with the help of Kauai Lifeguard Association and the Kauai Visitors Bureau, urges beachgoers to swim near a lifeguard tower, and that includes Poipu Beach Park.

“To clarify, the incident that Ms. McCabe has brought to the county’s attention occurred at Waiohai beach,” she said.

Other lifeguarded beaches on Kauai are: Kee Beach, Haena Beach Park, Hanalei Bay, Anahola Beach, Kealia Beach, Lydgate Beach Park, Salt Pond and Kekaha Beach.