One Woman's Beach Stroll Turned Terrifying When She Was Pulled Into Quicksand
Experts say the quicksand was caused by climate change.
Published June 11 2024, 1:12 p.m. ET
For one woman, a simple stroll on the beach turned into a life-or-death moment when she found herself sucked into a section of quicksand along the shores of a popular Maine beach. Jamie Acord was collecting trash as part of a beach cleaning effort with her husband when the incident happened.
Continue reading to learn the fate of the woman swallowed by quicksand on a Maine beach, and learn why you may need to be on the lookout for quicksand where you live.
Woman swallowed by quicksand on Maine beach lives to tell her tale.
Acord told CTV News that she had been cleaning litter off the shores of Popham Beach when she suddenly found herself hip-deep in a sea of sand. She told reporters that she "dropped like a rock" in an instant before letting out a surprised cry for help to her nearby husband, who was able to pull her to safety.
Acord told reporters that she couldn't feel any bottom to the pit she was trapped in and that she had been unable to find her footing to escape on her own. As soon as she was free of the mess, Acord says she and her husband immediately looked back at the spot where she'd been swallowed, which quickly filled back in and looked just as it had before she took the scary step.
Surprisingly enough, quicksand — also known as supersaturated sand, according to Time magazine — isn't that uncommon. In fact, it seems like it may become even more common in the future if experts are correct, since they believe it's caused by climate change.
Here's how to get out of quicksand:
A spokesperson for Maine's Department of Agriculture, Conservation, and Forestry told Time that winter storms hit the area especially hard over the 2023/2024 season, causing a river that typically empties into the ocean to be rerouted into an area where visitors frequent. This continuous water exposure caused the sand to become supersaturated, creating a scary situation.
Fortunately, the spokesperson said that folks don't need to worry that they'll end up like ill-fated victims on television and movies who get sucked into the sand, never to return. Instead, he said that you're more likely to stay afloat, which should give you plenty of time to wiggle your way out of the sand and get yourself to safety, even if you don't have someone nearby to help, as Acord did.
Whether that's comforting news to people who now have a new fear unlocked or not, it seems like Acord and her husband are breathing a bit easier now that they know how easy it is to survive a quicksand encounter.
That being said, with many places seeing more precipitation as a result of climate change, it's likely that we'll all be hearing a lot more about these types of incidents. Hopefully, those stories will continue to have as happy of an ending as Acord's.
