Search suspended for man swept out

KALIHIWAI — The search for a 62-year-old male who was swept out to sea earlier this week was suspended Wednesday afternoon following a three-day, multi-agency effort.

Phua Chuan Chin, of Singapore, was reported as Kaua‘i’s ninth drowning for 2013, according to county officials.

Chin was one of two men swept out to sea Monday morning while walking the rocky and remote shoreline along Kalihiwai Point, just east of Kalihiwai Bay on the North Shore.

A team of rescuers, including Kaua‘i lifeguards, firefighters, police and the U.S. Coast Guard, conducted an air, land and sea search. Chin’s body could not be located.

The second victim, age 47 of Ohio, was able to make it back to shore after being swept out. Rescue personnel then airlifted him from the scene to Kalihiwai Beach where awaiting medics transported him to Wilcox Memorial Hospital. He was released from care Monday afternoon.

The incident occurred within a few hundred feet of the double-drowning of two San Francisco men on Jan. 18, when Brian Baker, 47, was swept into the ocean by a rogue wave. His friend, 46-year-old Adam Griffiths, attempted to save him but was also overcome by the high surf. Rescuers were able to recover the body of Griffiths but Baker’s body was never recovered.