'I’ve really got to warn people against playing the mud,' Peterson said. Signs are posted warning people of hazardous waters and mud flats. When the tide comes back in, the silt gets wet from the bottom, loosens up and can create a vacuum if a person walks on it. 'It looks like it’s solid, but it’s not.' The estuary travels southeast from the Anchorage area and parallels the Seward Highway, the only highway that goes south and delivers tourists from Anchorage to the sportsman’s paradise of the Kenai Peninsula.Īt low tide, Turnagain Arm is known for its mud flats that 'can suck you down,' Peterson said. It lies across Turnagain Arm just 22 miles - but a 90-minute drive - from Anchorage. The accident occurred near the community of Hope, a quaint community of about 80 people. RELATED: Polar bear kills mother, son in Alaska village, state troopers say 'I have been in contact with all my members, and they’re all heartbroken,' Peterson said. The volunteer members of the department will gather later in the week for a debriefing, she said. 'We respond with as much passion and vigor as we can.' 'When we respond, we respond with the utmost of good intentions and as mothers and fathers and uncles and brothers,' she said. Peterson, who responded to the call, spoke with others in Porter's party but didn’t talk to him during the desperate rescue attempt. RELATED: Fallen climber rescued at Alaska’s Denali National Park 'But you have to remember that it’s Mother Nature, and she has no mercy for humanity.' 'It’s big, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, and it’s overwhelming,' Kristy Peterson, the administrator and lead EMT for the Hope-Sunrise Volunteer Fire Department, said of Alaska. Many more have been rescued, including someone who was fishing there last month. At least three other people have gotten stuck and drowned there over the years. The accident was the latest tragedy at Turnagain Arm, a 48-mile-long (77-kilometer-long) estuary carved out long ago by glaciers that travels southeast from the Anchorage area and parallels a major highway.Īt low tide, the estuary is known for its dangerous mud flats made of silt created by glacier-pulverized rocks.

Guy stuck in quicksand for 3 hours