Man who died on Inlet mud flats was Army attorney, outdoorsman

 

The body of a man was swept up in an incoming tide on the Cook Inlet mud flats Sunday was recovered early Monday morning, the Alaska State Troopers said.

His family identified him as Capt. Joseph Hugh Eros, 42, of Anchorage, a Harvard graduate and JAG attorney for the U.S. Army who was due to deploy to a new post in South Korea in July.

Eros and a friend were returning to Kincaid Park from a walk to Fire Island when the tide -- one of the more extreme of the year -- swiftly came in Sunday afternoon, according to the Anchorage Fire Department. The friend, who had not been identified early Monday evening, made it back to shore but Eros was seen going under the water, which is about 40 degrees this time of year, said fire department battalion chief Tim Garbe.

An initial call to rescuers came in around 4:30 p.m., he said.

Searchers from agencies, including the fire department, helicopters from the Alaska Air National Guard's 11th Rescue Coordination Center and LifeMed Alaska, canvassed the waters and shorelines of the area.

The search turned into a body recovery operation after a few hours, Garbe said.

"Without a survival suit, if a person is known to have been in the water it's not considered survivable (after hours have passed)," he said.

It was the crew of an 11th Rescue Coordination Center helicopter that spotted Eros' body near shoreline at the "mouth of Turnagain Arm" around 3:30 a.m. on Monday morning, said public affairs specialist Alicia Halla.

The Cook Inlet mud flats are a treacherous but irresistible lure to some people, Garbe said.

"It's tempting. It looks like it's just a short walk to Fire Island but the conditions can change so quickly," he said.

At its peak, the tide was rising at a rate 6 inches per minute Sunday, he said.

The city, which manages Kincaid Park, where the men set out from, tries to educate people about the risks of the tidal flats but can't do anything to prevent them from walking on them, said parks superintendent Holly Spoth-Torres.

Every summer, people make the crossing despite warnings not to, said Garbe. And virtually every summer, some are rescued from the mud.

The walk can be done safely, said Doug Van Etten, a former leader of the Anchorage Adventurers Meetup group which, for several summers, organized group crossings of the mud flats, attracting up to 25 people.

Van Etten, who now lives in Grand Junction, Colo., said he's done the trip a total of five times without incident.

A safe crossing requires a nuanced, precise understanding of the tides, which few people have, said Van Etten.

The attraction of doing the walk despite its dangers is the same reason people take risks to climb mountains, said Van Etten: It offers a vantage point that not everybody gets to see.

"You look right down Turnagain Arm," he said. "You get the whole view with the mountains framing it, you basically look all the way to Portage."

Mike Eros says he wishes his brother had stayed away.

Joseph Hugh Eros was born in Kansas and grew up in a small town in West Virginia, said his brother in a phone interview and e-mail Monday from his home in Texas.

Eros graduated from Harvard in 1993 and then biked across the country, rock climbed, taught English in South Korea and was inspired to enlisted in the military after seeing the fall of the World Trade Center in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, his brother said. He was working in the tech industry at the time, his brother said.

"Within weeks of Sept. 11 he had joined the U.S. Army, feeling called to respond as best as he could," Eros said in an e-mail Monday.

Eros served in Iraq and witnessed the fall of Baghdad, his brother wrote. He later attended law school at the University of Michigan and returned to the Army as a JAG, or Judge Advocate General attorney.

Eros, according to his brother, was a private, loyal, funny man who was known as a leader: quietly stepping up to cook family dinners during his sister's illness and mentoring younger soldiers while he was in the military.

He was not married and had no children.

Eros was also an experienced outdoorsman who hiked, whitewater kayaked, rock climbed and told family he loved Anchorage because of its proximity to trails and wildlife.

The two brothers had taken an extensive hiking trip through Montana after their sister died in 2001 at age 28, Eros wrote.

Eros was scheduled to visit his brother in Alaska later this week before his move to South Korea. The two had planned to go hiking, take the ferry through Southeast Alaska and meet up with their parents in Bellingham, Wash.

"I actually asked him if we could go to Fire Island and he said no, it would be too dangerous even though the 'super-moon' low tides had recently happened," he wrote. "I was actually disappointed, but of course did not question his decision. I am immensely sad he ended up going this week. I can hear him cautioning me not go do something so stupid myself. I will always hear his voice guiding me towards better decisions, especially in the outdoors."

Reach Michelle Theriault Boots at mtheriault@adn.com or 257-4344.

Anchorage Daily News

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Missing Man on Cook Inlet Mudflats

Rescuers searching for person missing on Cook Inlet mudflats

Published: June 23, 2013  Anchorage Daily News

2013-06-24T19:28:53Z

By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTSAnchorage_Daily_News

 

By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS — mtheriault@adn.com

A man was missing on the Cook Inlet mudflats Sunday night after getting caught in the fast-moving tide while walking back from Fire Island, the Anchorage Fire Department said.

At 4:26 p.m. a caller told authorities two men had tried to walk to Fire Island and were struggling to make their way back as the tide quickly came in, said AFD battalion chief Mark Hall.
One man made it to shore but the other was seen going under the water, according to Hall.

Witnesses on the beach at Kincaid Park reported seeing the men "walking then starting to swim and then one went under," he said.

The man who made it back to shore was hypothermic and in shock but able to speak, Hall said.

It's not clear how close the men were to shore when the missing man went under. His name is not being released by authorities.
Sunday's tide is one of the most extreme of the year, Hall said.
"It came back a lot faster than they thought," he said.

Witnesses estimated the tide was moving between 10-15 knots and had come up at least 20 feet from the time they first say the men trying to get to shore, Hall said.
Rescuers were searching the inlet and shoreline north of for the missing man from the air and water Sunday night.
The fire department used jet skis to search the area, as well as a dive boat, according to Hall.

LifeMed Alaska helicopters had been called in to help with a grid search, he said. The Alaska Air National Guard was assisting too, a spokeswoman said.

The search area was focused on the Kincaid Park beach and shoreline and inlet areas north, Hall said.

High tide was expected around 8:30 p.m., he said.
Authorities routinely warn about the dangers of the Cook Inlet mudflats, which see extreme tides that can surprise even experienced walkers.

The man missing on the mud flats had completed the trek to and from Fire Island three times, Hall said the man's friend told authorities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bore Tide 2013

The biggest bore tide occurred yesterday at 4:51 in Turnagain Arm.  21 minutes was all it took to fill up the whole arm with water rising six inches per minute.  It was amazing.  

The first pullout at Beluga was full so we found a prime spot a few turnouts later and watched the sky cloud a perfect clear day with particles of glacial silt. The temperature also noticeably lowered.

This tide can climb 6-10 feet tall and travel 10 to 15 miles per hour. It takes not just a low tide but also a 27-foot tidal differential between low and high tide for a bore to form in Turnagain Arm. It runs for 50 miles. 

Perfectly sunny and gorgeous day.

Garden 2013

Glorious color this year!

Raspberries are fruiting

Who says you can't grow basil in Alaska??

The lad's gotta have potatoes!

Climb, babies, climb!

A work in progress - future greenhouse.  We actually have a pepper and a tomato already!

Pak's Memorial Garden

Baby, next door neighbor's cat adopted us!

CAP Test

I passed the CAP test by a comfortable margin, and join the ranks of 26,000 other certified administrative professionals.  Hurray!!  All that hard work, study, and angst paid off!!! 

http://www.iaap-hq.org/about

Halibut

First of the season halibut!  More later with a picture, I hope!