Rip Current Death in North Carolina

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Carolina Beach | A man who lifeguards pulled from a rip current at Carolina Beach late last month died at an area hospital this week, according to his family.

David Weaver, 41, of Leland was brought to shore June 27. Though he wasn’t breathing, he was revived on the way to New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, officials have said.

But family members say Weaver remained on life support after the rescue attempt.

On Wednesday, the family took him off life-support to see if he would survive, said Debbie Ward, Weaver’s sister-in-law. He died soon after.

The death is the third drowning to occur this season at New Hanover County beaches, and the second at Carolina Beach.

Earlier this summer, authorities said high winds had cut deep troughs in the sand just off shore at the area’s east-facing beaches.

Those areas between the shore and sandbars are conducive to the formation of rip currents, officials have said.

Weaver’s emergency and the prior drowning at Carolina Beach this year occurred near the Hamlet beach access, officials said. In May, a 19-year-old man from Fayetteville disappeared in the water there. His body was found days later. Then in June, a woman from Ohio drowned at Kure Beach after she was pulled from a rip current.

The emergency

Weaver’s emergency occurred around 7 p.m. on a Saturday, while the beach was crowded with swimmers, according to Weaver’s wife Sandy.

Authorities said lifeguards had recently finished their shift but were still in the area. Sandy said the family did not see any flags indicating the surf conditions, and said the flags, which could serve as a warning, should remain even after lifeguards leave.

Sandy says Weaver went into the water to help his 13-year-old daughter Amanda, and Kesha Davis, a 27-year-old family friend, who was swimming with her. Both were caught in a rip current. But Weaver never made it to them, Sandy said. Instead the current took him in a different direction.

Davis said trouble began when she and Amanda were in waist-deep water. “We were not far out,” she said. “One minute we could touch the bottom of the ocean, the next minute we couldn’t.”

Davis and Amanda eventually made it back toward the beach, where Sandy helped them ashore. Lifeguards brought Weaver to shore, started CPR and handed him off to EMS workers who took him to the hospital.

Ward, Weaver’s sister-in-law, remembered Weaver as fun and friendly. After a burn-injury, which family members say he sustained while painting streets, Weaver passed his time as a stay-at-home dad.

Sandy said he lived for their three children – Michael, Megan and Amanda – who are between the ages of 11 and 13.

His funeral is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday at Andrews Mortuary, with burial to follow at Greenlawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

Authorities have said anyone caught in a rip current shouldn’t fight it. Instead, swim parallel to the shore until you can get out of the current. Swimmers should swim near lifeguards, officials say, and signal to them if they get in trouble.