Theres a lesson in here somewhere.

Anchorage Daily News (AK)
July 16, 1988
Section: National
Edition: Final
Page: A1

RESCUERS TRY, BUT RISING TIDE CLAIMS WOMAN

MARILEE ENGE
Daily News reporter

Staff

The tide rose around young Adeana Dickison as Trooper Mike Opalka
strained to free her from the mud of Turnagain Arm that had imprisoned
her leg in a concretelike grip. "I talked to her, told her everything
was going to be all right, we were going to get her out of there."

The frigid, murky water had reached her chest.

He pulled and pulled with the help of paramedics, but the 38-degree
water sapped their strength. The water covered her head.

"I was holding onto her as she drowned. I'm hanging onto her and I had
to let go. I had no feeling in my arms, in my hands. I just had to let
go," he said. "She was alive, conscious. There was nothing we could
do."

It wasn't until after the swift tide had come and gone that
Dickison's body was released Friday afternoon by local firefighters
using a highpowered hose to wash it from the dense, finegrained muck.

The 18-year-old woman became mired on the mudflats near Ingram Creek,
about 45 miles south of Anchorage, early Friday morning and drowned in
the incoming tide.

Her husband, Jay, who watched helplessly as the water covered her
head, was treated for mild hypothermia by paramedics.

The couple had headed out on the tidal flats early Friday, driving a
four- wheel all-terrain vehicle and pulling a trailer full of gold-
dredging equipment. Alaska State Troopers said they planned to go to
Spokane or Seattle creeks, popular spots for placer mining.

They were newly arrived from Dayton, Nev., according to troopers;
their silver pickup truck still bears Nevada plates. The couple had
been married about a month and lived in Eagle River.

But they ventured into one of the most treacherous regions of the
state, a place so deceptive that one moment it seems as solid as an
asphalt highway and the next it feels like Jello pudding.

The Dickisons tried to cross a tidal slough that meanders through the
flats and, according to accounts by the rescue crews, the four-
wheeler became stuck in the mud. Adeana Dickison apparently began
pushing from behind, straining to move the vehicle and in the process
worked her leg into the muck.

"I have a hunch they just didn't have enough respect for the
environment and what this country will do to you," Opalka said.

The quagmire action of the mudflats in Turnagain and Knik arms is
legendary. The Alaska Milepost warns travelers: "CAUTION: Do not go
out on the mud flats at low tide. The incoming tide creates a
quicksand effect and is very dangerous."

"It's not very forgiving," said trooper Investigator Mark
Stewart. "People need to know to stay the heck out of here - it's
treacherous."

Jay Dickison told rescuers he tried for three hours to free his wife.
Finally, shortly before 8 a.m., he ran to the highway and asked a
group of motorists from Minnesota for assistance. One couple joined
him and another man went to the Tidewater Cafe at Portage to call for
help. Opalka is stationed in Girdwood.

"I got the call about 7:52," Opalka quietly recalled Friday
evening. "I called the fire department and told them to get on down
there. I walked on ahead to see what kind of situation we had."

When he arrived, Jay Dickison and the tourists were working with her.

Opalka walked back toward the firefighters who were just arriving at
the site, about a halfmile from the highway.

"By the time I got back, the water had risen to her face," Opalka
said. "It was obvious it was a dire emergency."

He took a piece of hose from the mining equipment and gave it to her,
hoping she would use it to breathe as the water climbed over her head.
By that time, several firefighters were helping him pull on her.
Adeana Dickison was screaming with panic. The tide was rushing through
the channel, ice-cold and moving fast as a river.

"It was inundating everybody," Opalka said. "By that time it was over
her head - she was breathing through the tube. I had ahold of her
legs, her armpits, anything."

Then she lost the tube. And Opalka had lost his strength.

Michael Polzin, a volunteer fireman from Girdwood, was also in the
water trying to free Dickison.

"I couldn't believe (Opalka's) stamina out there. My hands turned
white. I could barely get a rope around her," Polzin said.

"I pulled on her with all my might. Mother Nature had her."

The glacier streams that run into Turnagain Arm deposit ultrafine gray
silt that creates one of the world's scariest human traps. When the
tide is low, the mud is solid enough to walk on.

Once the water starts coming up, it turns soft and it is easy to get
stuck. But when the mud closes in and the water rises, it solidifies
again, acting like cement that has set.

The firemen had come with equipment especially designed for
extricating people from south-central Alaska's treacherous mudflats. A
portable pump sends water through a fire hose at a high speed and has
successfully washed people out of the mud in the past. But Friday,
they arrived too late to help.

"We've got the equipment to get people out but we have to get there in
time," Chadwick said. "You got to have time to use it."

By the time backup emergency crews, including divers, arrived from
Anchorage, Dickison had been under water an hour. The spot where
people had frantically worked to save her was a flat expanse of water,
stretching across Turnagain Arm to Twentymile River.

There was nothing to do but wait until the tide receded.

"At this point, all it's going to be unfortunately is a body
recovery," Girdwood's assistant fire chief Harold Rohling said.

As quickly as it came in, the tide went out, minute by minute
exposing the tires of the overturned fourwheeler, the vehicle's body,
then Adeana Dickison's shoulder.

Paramedics returned and extricated her body about 2 p.m. Friday, using
the pump and a shovel to move the mud.

 

Thanks for posting that article. I've been told about this story many times since I moved to Anchorage 2 years ago, but never found the news story on it. There are other stories like it and many near misses. Very tragic.

The mudflats and tide are not to be taken lightly. If you've ever set foot on this stuff you would know why. The ship creek fishing area in downtown Anchorage collects many, many hip boots and the fire department usually ends up pulling out at least one fisherman every year. It is my understanding that they now have a high pressure airline that can be inserted into the mud next to the victim to break the vacumn and get them out. I've always thought it was best not to find out anymore about how that works.

The Turnagain arm area where they were riding is one of the worst mudflats around. It also has the 2nd largest tides in the world. My tide book shows that the greatest tidal range last year was 41.2 feet. Thats an awful lot of water to move in a little over 6 hours. When conditions are right there will be a boar tide with a wave of several feet. Its impressive to watch, but best viewed from your truck on the highway.

The lessons to be learned: Stay off the mud. Don't wait 3 hours to get help.