Girl Survives Quicksand Mishap on Well-liked Maine Seashore

Phippsburg, Maine — A Maine girl having fun with a stroll on a well-liked seashore realized that quicksand does not simply occur in Hollywood motion pictures in jungles or rainforests.

Jamie Acord was strolling on the water’s edge at Popham Seashore State Park over the weekend when she sunk to her hips in a cut up second, letting out a surprised scream. She instructed her husband, “I can not get out!”

“I couldn’t really feel the underside,” she mentioned. “I couldn’t discover my footing.”

Inside seconds, her husband had pulled her from the sand entice, the sand crammed in, and the surprised couple puzzled: What simply occurred?

It seems that quicksand, often known as supersaturated sand, is an actual factor all over the world, even in Maine, removed from the jungle areas the place Hollywood has used it so as to add drama by ensnaring actors.

Fortunately, actual life just isn’t like within the motion pictures.

People who find themselves caught in supersaturated sand stay buoyant — folks don’t sink in quicksand — permitting them to drift and wriggle themselves to security, mentioned Jim Britt, spokesperson for the Maine Division of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

“Folks hear the phrase quicksand they assume jungle film. The fact with this supersaturated sand is you’re not going to go beneath,” he mentioned.

On this case, local weather change performed a task within the episode on the state’s busiest state park seashore, which pulls greater than 225,000 guests annually, Britt mentioned. A series of winter storms rerouted a river that pours into the ocean, softening the sand in space the place beachgoers are extra apt to stroll, necessitating the position warning indicators by park employees, he mentioned.

Acord took to social media to warn others after her episode on Saturday, when she and her husband, Patrick, had been strolling on the seashore. Acord was amassing trash, so her arms had been full when she sunk.

All of it occurred so quick she didn’t have time to be scared, however she worries that it could be horrifying for somebody who was alone, particularly a toddler who could be traumatized. “A child can be scared,” she mentioned.