The body of 4-year-old Wesley Belisle was found Monday morning, five days after he was swept out to see by a reported “rogue wave.”
He was found at 7:40 a.m. on Carova Beach in Currituck County, after an intense search.
The Kitty Hawk Police said the boy’s disappearance drew international interest, in part because of the bizarre way in which he died.
His mother told police a wave knocked her and the boy to the ground and pulled them out to sea as they walked along the beach Tuesday.
“Rogue waves” were long considered nothing more than marine folklore, blamed for the disappearance of ships and the sudden vanishing of people. But researchers such as Douglas Faulkner of the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering have proven “rogue, freak and killer” waves are quite real and happen more frequently than previously believed.
Kitty Hawk Police and the U.S. Coast Guard have not specifically used the term “rogue wave” in press releases about the boy’s disappearance, but media outlets have reported authorities blaming such a wave for the boy’s disappearance.
The surf at Kitty Hawk that day was intense, with waves 4 to 6 feet high “crashing onto shore with ferocity,” reported the Washington Post.
The mother of the missing boy reported the two were walking in ankle deep water about 3 p.m. Tuesday when they were struck by a wave that knocked both to the ground. The boy was ripped from her grasp and quickly carried away, reported the Kitty Hawk Police Department.
She got up and scoured the water for her son as another wave rushed in, and then “lost sight of him in the surf,” U.S. Coast Guard officials told the Washington Post.
A surfer in the area told WVEC that the current was rougher than usual, and “a little kid didn’t stand a chance out there all alone.”
The family was vacationing on the Outer Banks from Manchester, New Hampshire, reported the New Hampshire Union Leader. The family had spent the previous days “collecting shells, digging holes in the sand, building sandcastles, and walking on the beach as a family with our dog,” the newspaper said.
The National Ocean Service defines “rogues” as waves which are greater than twice the size of surrounding waves, are very unpredictable, and often come unexpectedly from directions other than prevailing wind and waves.
Rogue waves have long been considered a danger along the Carolina coast. Even under calm conditions and light seas, the surf zone comes with its dangers, reported an article in North Carolina Sportsman.
“A set of rogue waves will hit by surprise,” charter boat Capt. Ricky Kellum told North Carolina Sportsman. “The first one knocks you on (the) floor, and second one fills the boat with water.”
In 2009, two rogue waves were blamed for sinking a ship called The Captain Smoke, 45 miles north of Charleston, according to an article in the Charleston Post & Courier. The waves smashed the ship to bits, leaving only debris on the ocean surface and three fishermen in a life raft, the newspaper reported.
——
©2018 The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Visit The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.) at www.charlotteobserver.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
———
PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194):
—————
Topics: t000002458,t000027866,t000196710
