‘Mother Nature has no mercy’: Man gets stuck waist-deep in Alaska mud flats, drowns as tide comes in
By MARK THIESSEN
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A man walking on tidal mud flats with friends in an Alaska estuary got stuck up to his waist in the quicksand-like silt and drowned as the tide came in before frantic rescuers could extract him. Authorities say 20-year-old Zachary Porter, of Lake Bluff, Illinois, was submerged Sunday evening as the tide came in. His body was recovered Monday. The accident was the latest tragedy at Turnagain Arm, a 48-mile-long glacier-carved estuary that travels southeast from Anchorage. The estuary’s dangerous mud flats have claimed at least three other lives over the years, and many more have been rescued.
