Survivor Recalls Its Power, Heroes Who Defied it: Sea Turned Deadly in Seconds
By DIANE CARROLL,  Kansas City Star

Kristy Scheuer was in the Pacific Ocean when she noticed the current had been slowly pushing her farther out to sea. Rain had started to fall.

Spanish teacher Brett Carlson was on shore, yelling for her and his students to come in. They tried to obey, Scheuer said, but the current rushed against them. Suddenly, she said, she could no longer touch the ocean floor.

It was 5 p.m. Saturday. Scheuer and nine students from Labette County High School in Altamont, Kan., had spent several hours enjoying the water at Palo Seco beach near Parrita, 180 miles south of San José in Costa Rica. But in a matter of minutes, the weather and ocean changed dramatically, Scheuer said Tuesday in an interview.

'At first I was thinking we were all going to get in fine because you know that's what always happens,' said Scheuer, 19. 'Everything always turns out OK. Then, after about five minutes, I was, like, things are not going to turn out OK because I couldn't breathe anymore because I kept getting pushed under the waves.'

Students Danielle Tongier, 18, Andrew Harpstrite, 17, and Jessica Pierce, 17, drowned. As of late Tuesday, Carlson - who went back in for Scheuer - remained missing.

The Altamont group began an educational tour in Costa Rica on June 5. They were to have returned today. But they cut their trip short and were home late Monday. Scheuer, who will be a sophomore at Independence Community College this fall, was with the group because she had talked with Carlson about taking such a trip when she was a student at Labette County High.

When Scheuer realized her predicament, she said, she called for help. Carlson went in after her. By that time, she said, it was raining hard. But it was still light.

'When he got to me he was holding me above the water because I was having a hard time standing up,' Scheuer said. 'So that helped a lot being able to breathe a little bit and just know there was hope.'

The waves kept rushing over them, Scheuer said, and she and Carlson got separated. The current pushed him farther from shore.

She estimated she was in the water for 15 to 20 minutes before she saw a stranger come to her aid. She learned later that he was B.J. King of Tipton, Iowa, who was with a student group from that state. He told her that he and a friend had just helped their teacher get out of the water.

'All of a sudden, he popped up in front of me,' she said. 'He grabbed me and kept my head above water and then he got me to where I could stand on the sand.'

Pierce, whose body was found Tuesday by the crew of a shrimp boat, was a lifeguard. She had returned to the water to help others, Scheuer said.

Hotel workers brought flotation devices.

Shortly after she reached shore, Scheuer said, Tongier was pulled out of the water. She was not breathing. Rescue workers tried to resuscitate her for a half hour before pronouncing her dead. Scheuer said she and other students were not aware that Tongier had died until about an hour later when they were back at their hotel.

Scheuer said someone at the hotel told them they might have been far enough out in the ocean to have reached a drop-off point. Scheuer said the students had been told that swimming in the ocean would be safe, as long as they were careful.

She said she did not feel anyone was to blame for what happened.

'We were swimming for hours in safe water, but in five seconds the weather changed, the waves got bigger and it got dangerous,' she said.