A Pennsylvania mother reportedly drowned while on a family vacation in North Wildwood, New Jersey on Tuesday as she tried to save her three children from forceful rip currents.
The 49-year-old woman, from Wernersville, Pennsylvania, entered the ocean around 3 p.m. when she noticed her children — two boys aged 8 and 10, and a 19-year-old daughter — were struggling in the waters of the 18th Avenue beach, NJ.com reported.
“The mother was calling out to them to come back and when she saw they were having trouble, she jumped into the water,” Fire Chief Dominick J. McClain told the outlet.
The mom managed to pull her two sons to safety — but she returned to the water when she noticed her daughter was still battling the current.
Emergency responders had arrived shortly thereafter and rescued the daughter. They also pulled out the mother, who was found unconscious about 150 yards from the shoreline, according to the outlet.
She was transported to Cape Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
The woman’s husband was with their other children at Montego Bay Resort, where the family had been vacationing, as the tragedy unfolded — only to arrive at the beach as his wife was being retrieved from the water, McClain told NJ.com.
There were no lifeguards at the beach Tuesday on what was a comparatively chilly, overcast day, according to McClain.
“It was not at all a beach day. The water was very rough and the rip currents were very dangerous,” he said.