Married couple, 47 and 49, killed after getting caught in a riptide at a New Hampshire beach

A Massachusetts couple died after they got caught in a rip current at a New Hampshire beach. 

Michael and Laura Cote were unconscious when they were pulled from the water at the Seabrook shore around 12.30pm on Sunday. 

They were rushed to Portsmouth Regional Hospital where the 49-year-old husband was pronounced dead and his 47-year-old wife died hours later. 

The couple from Methuen, Massachusetts, was identified by their church, Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, in a Facebook post Monday afternoon.

Michael and Laura Cote were killed by a rip current at a New Hampshire beach on Sunday. The couple had been pulled from the water unconscious and were transported to a hospital where the 49-year-old husband was pronounced dead and his 47-year-old wife died hours later

The sunny day at Seabrook Beach turned deadly when six swimmers got caught in a riptide

The sunny day at Seabrook Beach turned deadly when six swimmers got caught in a riptide

Matt Tomaszewski was one of the numerous good Samaritans who sprang into action when the sunny day at the beach took a dire turn as six swimmers got caught in a rip current.

Tomaszewski, a 29-year-old former basketball player for Syracuse University, managed to help two people grab his board. He also tried to rescue a third person who appeared to be unconscious.

He ‘helped to get his head out of the water and tried to put as much of his torso on the paddleboard as I could while the other two were just holding on’, Tomaszewski told WCVB-TV.

But then, a wave pushed the man away, and he lost sight of him. He gave his board to the other two swimmers who headed to shore as he went in search of the third swimmer.

‘I learned afterwards that the people I helped have three daughters, and I’m a father myself, so when I was running out there, I was thinking about saving as many people as I can. And on my way back in, it was all thinking about my family,’ Tomaszewski said. 

Police and fire rescuers were called to the scene, and one officer shed his uniform before jumping in to help swimmers back to the shore. 

That officer later with a surfboard to search for another. Lifeguards at a nearby beach swarmed in on Jet Skis and with a rescue boat.

Four swimmers and a good Samaritan who also got caught in the current were pulled to safety unscathed, but the Cotes weren’t so lucky.

Their church in Dracut has planned a funeral service for them on Monday night. 

‘They were so involved in every spiritual and other undertaking in this parish that many of us are in deep mourning,’ Rev Sean Maher posted on Facebook. 

Fred Marion and his wife attended church with the Cotes. They vacationed with them in the mountains of New Hampshire and traveled together to Washington, DC, and Rome.

‘Certainly them being friends, it’s stunning that this happened,’ Fred Marion said. ‘We are in shock, as anyone would be.’

Saint Francis Roman Catholic Church in Dracut, Massachusetts, broke the news that the couple, who were members of the congregation, had died in a Facebook post Monday 

Saint Francis Roman Catholic Church in Dracut, Massachusetts, broke the news that the couple, who were members of the congregation, had died in a Facebook post Monday 

Rip currents, sometimes referred to as riptides, are narrow channels of water that move as fast as eight feet per second and occur at any beach with breaking waves.

They move away from the shore. Anyone caught in them is advised to swim parallel to shore to escape their pull.

There were signs on the beach warning swimmers that no lifeguards were on duty, but not about the potential for a rip current, Seabrook Town Manager William Manzi III said.

It was the first one he could remember since becoming town manager five years ago. Alerts on the rough currents and an advisory to avoid swimming were put on the local police department’s social media accounts afterward.

The police and fire departments are expected to issue recommendations in response to the tragedy in the coming days, to be considered by the town board, Manzi said.

‘Whatever they recommend, we will take a look and see what happens,’ he said.

In 2006, New Hampshire beaches started a flag warning system after two swimmers drowned in rip currents near Hampton Beach the year before. The color-coded flags included green ones to signal low risk and red to alert beachgoers to high risk conditions.



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