WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C. — A Catawba County father drowned after trying to save his son from a tidal current, police said Wednesday.
The Wrightsville Beach Police Department said in a news release that Bhou Soutthivong and his family were visiting from Hickory and were fishing at the south end of the beach on Sept. 4.
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Police said Soutthivong’s 10-year-old son went swimming and was being pulled away from the shore by the current. Officials said Soutthivong tried to help his son and was also pulled away from shore.
The boy was rescued by a kayaker who reacted to the scene. Soutthivong was pulled out of the water and onto a charter boat where efforts to resuscitate him began as he was being taken to a U.S. Coast Guard station.
Coast Guard personnel, Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue and emergency workers continued CPR for nearly 45 minutes before Soutthivong was pronounced dead, police said.
Family members said they vacation in Wrightsville Beach often and that the 48-year-old father loved going there to enjoy the ocean and to fish. Channel 9 reporter Dave Faherty spoke with Soutthivong’s family on Thursday, and they said he didn’t hesitate to go in the water after his son.
“I was in shock, and I couldn’t believe it was him, and I couldn’t talk, you know?” said his sister, Sourisa Rasombath. “I just sat there and cried all day.”
“It doesn’t surprise me at all that he went in there,” said brother-in-law David Poole. “I just thank God that he did what he went in there to do. If we were having two funerals, it’d be a tragedy. This is sadness, but he did what he went in there to do.”
The drowning at Wrightsville Beach was not related to Hurricane Larry, said Steve Pfaff of the National Weather Service office in Wilmington.
The weather service said swells from Larry, which on Wednesday was centered southeast of Bermuda, will impact North Carolina beaches and make conditions particularly hazardous through Saturday.
(WATCH BELOW: What You Need to Know: Rip Currents)
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