It’s swim — or sink — at one Maine beach dealing with a sudden rash of quicksand scares.
Jamie Acord was strolling along the water in Popham Beach State Park last weekend with her husband when she suddenly “dropped like a rock” and fell hip-deep into the sand.
“I can’t get out,” she screamed. It was high tide and the ocean was creeping in.
Her quick-acting husband, Patrick, was able to pull her from the hole and they watched, shocked, as it filled back in with sand and disappeared.
“I couldn’t feel the bottom,” said Acord.
“I couldn’t find my footing.”
The popular destination, just east of Portland, is Maine’s busiest state park beach, drawing 225,000 visitors annually.
Just this year, it has had several cases of quicksand encounters, according to officials.
“A few people have stepped in and gone up to their knees or ankles or their waist,” park manager Sean Vaillencourt told WGME CBS 13.
Luckily, the frightening falls aren’t quite as dramatic as Hollywood portrays them.
“People hear the word quicksand, they think jungle movie,” said Jim Britt, a spokesman for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.
“The reality with this supersaturated sand is you’re not going to go under.”
The quicksand at the Maine park is not a new problem but storms over the winter rerouted a nearby river, making it flow closer to the beach.
It now soaks the sand that beachgoers often walk on — to the point where one can step right through it.
Park rangers said they would soon put up signs to warn people about the sinkholes, WGME reported.
Vaillencourt insists nobody, including children, can sink beyond their legs.
He advises anyone who encounters quicksand to stay calm, get rid of any heavy items they might be carrying and lean forward or back to disperse their weight and move more freely.
Then, they should try to wriggle out — or call for help.
With Post wires
