This past weekend Hurricane Bill’s path up the east coast of the United States and Canada seemed the best possible outcome not making landfall as it burned up its energy and punch. However damaging waves, rip currents, and treacherous seas wreaked havoc on those who dared to get near.
In Florida a 54 year old man drowned while body surfing on Saturday in the storm fueled waves. On Sunday as many as 5 people were washed into the ocean at Acadia National Park when a large wave crashed over the viewing platform at Thunder Hole. Two of the five people were immediately rescued by bystanders and the three others were swept out to sea. Two of the three were rescued by US Coast Guard but the third, a seven year old girl was not and her body was recovered hours later.
The death of Michael Nemes on Saturday in Onslow County would also appear to be related to Hurricane Bill as more details of this tragedy become available.
Michael Nemes a vacationing police officer from New York was driving a jet ski on the ocean side of Brown’s Inlet a remote location along the North Carolina Coast near Camp Lejeune when the single vessel accident occurred around 4 pm.

The incident occurred around 4 p.m., said Jackie Schmidt of Jacksonville and his brother-in-law, Dan Haugk, of Holly Springs, who attempted to rescue the Nemes.
Schmidt and Haugk had been on their personal watercraft on the sound side of the beach, when a woman came running up the beach screaming that someone was drowning.
“We took off on our skis and went around the sound side, through Browns Inlet, and saw a man out in the ocean,” Haugk told The Daily News on Sunday.
Initially, Haugk said he thought a small boat had capsized, but as he got closer, he discovered it was a personal watercraft.
“I saw a person floating in the distance. He was face down and he was wearing a life jacket. I got as close as I could with the jet ski, then jumped off the jet ski and turned him over to see if he was responsive,” Haugk said.
Schmidt and Haugk tried to pull the man onto their personal watercraft, but the waves were too strong.
“About that time, an 8-foot wave hit us. I lost track of (Nemes) and the jet ski sunk,” said Haugk, who said he swam to shore on Browns Island. Haugk was able to spot Nemes out in the surf and, with Schmidt’s help, pulled him out the water.
“He had no pulse. He was unresponsive,” Haugk said.

Jacksonville Daily News
It took rescuers from Swansboro over an hour to reach the scene after the initial 911 call according to bystander reports. This accident remains under investigation by the NCWRC as well as the local medical examiner.
The power of the ocean especially when a storm is present or nearby can be over whelming. It would appear that in all these cases people wanted to be close to the excitement a storm like this can generate and the awe inspiring splendor of Mother Nature’s fury. Unfortunately they got caught up in that fury and paid dearly.

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