STORM2K

azskyman wrote:A sad story with a tragic ending. Thanks for the personal account of being on the beach this morning.

I still recall the attack on Bethany Hamilton shortly after our visit to Hawaii a couple of years ago. She was more fortunate and has turned the accident into an opportunity...but so hard to predict the exact time and place when something like this seems poised to happen.

http://www.bethanyhamilton.com

Brent wrote:14-year-old girl

Tim Dicus, 54, had been surfing when he heard a scream and saw one of the two girls swimming rapidly to shore.

"The other one had disappeared and there was this big dark area in the water where she had been," Dicus told The Associated Press. "So I immediately paddled over and found her floating face down in the center of the blood pool. And right next to her was the shark, about to come up and attack her again."

Dicus said he put the girl on his surf board and the shark — which appeared to be a bull shark about 8 feet long — went after her hand.

"He just followed us right to the beach," Dicus said. "He was determined to finish lunch. I hate to put it that way, but that was what he was trying to do."

Most of the victim's thigh was missing, Dicus said.

"There wasn't anything from the knee to the hip, just the bone," he said.

Two other swimmers came with a raft, which they put the girl in and towed to shore. But the shark stayed nearby and turned on Dicus, he said.

Dicus said he punched the shark "on the nose, just as he was coming up to open his mouth and take a little sharky nibble."

Jeff White, 49, of Atlanta, said his son helped bring the girl to shore in the raft.

"He said at one point, the shark was underneath them," White said. "So they stopped paddling. Somebody distracted the shark and they brought the girl the rest of the way in."

One of the men slapped the water to distract the shark, he said.

fwbbreeze wrote:I have been on the beaches in San Destin since this morning. We were told of the attack and the beach I was on was being closed as we left. Not unusual to see sharks swimming beyond the sand bar....very unusual to see one attack. Reports have the girl nearly a 100 feet off shore. Thats a pretty good distance out....but rather shallow in regards to the topography of the shoreline. It is sad indeed. I wonder if there was anyone surf fishing near the attack site. I have seen on multiple occasions people fishing and sharks drawn in close by the bait.

fwbbreeze