Article: Rogue wave sweeps local Eagan man into Atlantic

4. June 2008 by admin.

Uncle was also swept out, but made it back to shore

Associated Press

An Eagan man is missing after a giant wave swept him the Atlantic Ocean off Puerto Rico, relatives said.

Brad Beer, 29, and his uncle were standing on a rock over the water on a point just behind their house Wednesday night when the wave carried them out to sea, said Beer’s aunt, Diane McAfee, also of Eagan.

Larry McAfee, 46, Beer’s uncle, made it back to shore with only minor injuries. The men had gone out to dinner after work and had just come back to their house, on the north coast of the island near Manati, Diane McAfee said Saturday. They went out on the point, as they did almost every night, to talk and watch the ocean.

“There was no storm” she said, “just a sudden wall of water. They were looking at something else, turned and it was there.”

“My husband’s an experienced scuba diver and deep sea diver,” McAfee said. “He’s been doing it for years all over the world. Brad is a snorkeler.” Kerrie Beer, 27, Brad’s wife, added “If Larry had the thought the water was unstable they would’nt have been out there. They weren’t sightseeing.”

Larry McAfee told his wife that he was carried out ¼ to ½ mile. He told her he thinks it took him 45 minutes or more to get back, Diane McAfee said. He called 911 and the Coast Guard, which had been

Patrolling the area earlier, she said, and a boat was there within minutes. Kerrie Beer said Saturday afternoon that the Coast Guard has suspended the search; searchers had done what they could with surface craft, she said, but weather didn’t permit the use of divers.

Agent Lourdes Lopez of the Puerto Rican local patrol was quoted in some reports as saying that waves of such height are not unusual this time of year on the islands northern coast, but Kerrie Beer said the Coast Guard commander in charge of the search disagreed with that.

Diane McAfee described Brad Beer as “the best, the most honest, sincere person – a wonderful, supportive person. When you think about him, you smile. Of course, Larry is just devastated. It’s his nephew and his friend.” Larry McAfee is a computer consultant and has working on a project for the pharmaceutical company Merck & co. in Peurto Rico for several years, Diane McAfee said. “It always surprises you how wonderful people can be. My phone and (Kerries) have been ringing off the hook, We know when people call it’s because they want the best for you, but of course nobody knows what to say.”

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