NEAH BAY — Makah emergency personnel continued searching late Monday afternoon until dark for a tribal member who was on shoreline rocks at Hole in the Wall near Tatoosh Island on Sunday afternoon before he was reportedly swept away by a wave, tribal Fire Department Chief Jasper Bruner said.
The Coast Guard suspended its search about 9:45 a.m. Monday, about 18 hours after the wave pulled the man into deep waters on the Strait of Juan de Fuca side of Cape Flattery at about 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, Bruner and Coast Guard spokesman Petty officer Jonathan Klingenberg said.
“It is suspended pending further information,” Klingenberg said late Monday afternoon.
Bruner said the man, who was on the rocks with a male companion, was in his early 20s.
Bruner did not identify the missing man, a Neah Bay High School graduate and lifelong resident of the community.
Weather at the time of the incident included 20 mph winds, with 10- to 11-foot waves, according to the Coast Guard.
The water temperature was about 50 degrees.
Both the man and his companion, whom Bruner would not identify, were on a flat, rocky area of shoreline in the vicinity of mussel beds when both were knocked down by a wave.
The companion was able to stand up and get out of danger.
“Some bystanders saw what was going on and reported it,” Bruner said.
Searchers found the man’s backpack floating in the water, Klingenberg said.
An MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Sector Field Office Port Angeles, a Station Neah Bay 47-foot motor life boat crew and Neah Bay firefighters searched for the man.
The search also was aided by a helicopter contracted by the tribe out of Olympia.
Watchstanders at Sector Puget Sound received the report of the man swept from the rocks from the Neah Bay Fire Department after they received a call from a friend of the man who reported the incident.
“If there is solid enough evidence that permits us to go out and search again, then we would definitely do that,” Klingenberg said.
“There is a survivability window that takes in a lot of different factors,” Klingenberg said. “That time has expired.”
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
