A shuttle driver recently used his bare hands to rescue three tourists caught in a potentially deadly rip current off the southern Louisiana coast, actions that state officials hailed as “heroic.”
Rescue on Grand Isle
In an interview published on June 15, Reliant Shuttle driver Jordan Matthew told WWL Louisiana that he had just dropped off a group of tourists from Oklahoma at a beach on Grand Isle days earlier when one of them frantically flagged him down. Matthew was told a young boy had been caught in a rip current. A woman, apparently a relative of the child, went in to try to save him but was pulled in by the dangerous current herself. Furthermore, Matthew learned that the current had caught a third member of the group as she swam nearby.
Matthew recalled seeing “they were bobbing under, [and] the waves were crashing over their heads” at the edge of an area known as the Elmer’s Island wildlife refuge. “It was a rough sight,” he said. Despite having no formal lifeguard training, Matthew instinctively ran into the water. He initially pulled the boy and one of the women to shallower water, then led them to shore. Matthew then swam out to the other woman after she had drifted farther out, grabbed her, and managed to haul her back to the shore, including by carrying her over his shoulder at one point.
Absolute Focus
The native of Mandeville, Louisiana, about 120 miles from the Elmer’s Island refuge, described his mindset to WWL. “There’s this thing I call ‘absolute focus’,” Matthew said. “I activated that in my mind, just locked in, and went one by one [to] get them.” He told those he rescued to remain calm so they didn’t “run out of energy” while struggling in the water, adding that he “didn’t really have too many thoughts going.”
A viral June 13 social media post from the state agency that manages the refuge was clear about the impact of Matthew’s intervention. “Thanks to Jordan’s decisive action, all three individuals made it safely out,” the post from Louisiana’s Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said. The department’s post also extended “a big thank you to … Matthew for his quick thinking and heroic actions.” His “willingness to act in a critical moment made all the difference,” the department added. “Thank you, Jordan, for your courage, selflessness, and commitment to helping others.”
Aftermath and Safety Tips
Matthew said he was relieved to see the tourists he saved were physically fine, other than being emotionally rattled. They invited him to dinner as a gesture of gratitude. Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries department quoted a word of caution from Matthew about how strong tidal currents are and how those unfamiliar with them can sometimes underestimate them. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines rip currents as narrow channels of water rapidly moving away from shores. They are involved in the deaths of about 100 people annually. If caught in a rip current, NOAA says people can get out most safely by swimming parallel to the shore and back to land at an angle, rather than directly toward it. Matthew told WWL: “If there’s calm water, there’s bound to be a rip [current].”
