Just when you start to think the world is evil, something comes along to prove you wrong
It’s not often we get to hear good news lately, but the frankly heroic actions of a group of beachgoers in Florida is spreading joy around the world.
A group of people caught up in a rip current in Panama City Beach, on Saturday, narrowly avoided death after scores of strangers linked hands to form a human chain and bring them to safety.
Nine swimmers, including two children and one elderly woman, were staring down the barrel of a tragedy, but began yelling and waving their arms to attract the attention of bystanders on the shore. Luckily, their warning signals didn’t go unnoticed.
An estimated 80 people formed the chain, which stretched almost 100 yards into the Gulf of Mexico, saving the lives of everyone involved. Of those trapped in the riptide were six members of the same family, including a grandmother who suffered a heart attack, but is recovering in hospital.
Roberta Ursrey was relaxing on the beach when she lost sight of her two sons, eight and 11, from the shore. She eventually spotted them crying and shouting in the water, and ran out, with other family members, to pull them back. However, overpowered by the current, she and several others who tried to help found themselves in a nasty spot of danger, unable to swim.
Derek Simmons, who quickly organised the human chain with his wife Jessica, told The Guardian: ‘It was a wave of humanity that brings some things back into focus, that maybe we haven’t lost all hope in this world.
‘We thought it was a shark; we have a ton of those,’ he continued. ‘We walked down to see what was going on and I asked the guy furthest out if everything was OK. He said: “No, those people out there are drowning, I can’t get to them because the current’s too strong.”
‘I said to the guy: “Let’s try to get as many people as we can to form a human chain.” If you know about ants, you know when one’s in trouble they form a chain to help it. My theory was, let’s get enough people, we’ll get out there and pull them in and everybody can finish having a good rest of the evening.”
Somebody give this guy a medal!