Woman swallowed by quicksand while enjoying walk on the beach with husband

A woman was swallowed by quicksand while enjoying a walk with her husband along a popular beach in coastal Maine.

Jamie Acord was walking along the water's edge at Popham Beach State Park in Phippsburg, located in the Portland metropolitan area, earlier this month when she suddenly 'dropped like a rock'.

She sunk to her hips in a split second and let out a stunned scream as the high tide started creeping in.

Acord told her husband Patrick: 'I can't get out!'

But within seconds Patrick came to her rescue, pulling her from the sand trap. The couple then watched as the hole filled back up with sand and disappeared.

Jamie Acord was walking along the water's edge at Popham Beach State Park in Phippsburg with her husband Patrick  earlier this month when she got caught in quicksand and suddenly 'dropped like a rock'. The couple are pictured together at the beach

This photo provided by Patrick Acord shows his wife, Jamie Acord, on Popham Beach, in Phippsburg, Maine, where she sunk to her hips in quicksand, Saturday, June 1, 2024

Acord took to social media to warn others after her episode on June 1, when she and Patrick were strolling on the beach.

She had been collecting trash, so her hands were full when she sunk waist-deep into the sand in just a matter of seconds.

'I just dropped like a rock,' Acord told WCSH-TV. 'Patrick said I was there and then the next minute I wasn't.' 

She shared how she 'couldn't feel the bottom' or 'find my footing' as the sand continued to pull her down. 

'I couldn't feel the ground with my feet. I couldn't push myself out,' she recalled.

Patrick managed to pull her to safety. Acord, with the exception of a few scratches, was not injured in the incident.

She then changed her clothes which she described as being covered in 'wet-cement-like sand' and decided to share her experience online as a warning to others.

'The state Park Rangers stated they have had some reports of the sand being like quick sand. I fell in up to my hips, that's 2.5 feet,' she warned in her Facebook post. 

'Patrick Acord said one minute I was there and the next I was not. I had to have him pull me out I could not do it on my own. My feet are scratched up as are my knees probably from rocks or sticks in the hole.

'No sooner did Patrick pull me out did the hole disappear.' 

Acord said the situation happened so quickly that she didn't have time to be scared, but she worries that it would be frightening for someone who was alone, especially a child who might be traumatized.

'Had I been a small child I would have disappeared into the hole. I'm not kidding they would have been sucked in,' she said, adding that a 'kid would be scared'.

She told People Magazine that she and her family 'go to that beach all the time', but had never experienced quicksand before.

'It was kind of one of those moments where I didn't know what to do,' she said. 'This is a new thing that's never happened before.'

Acord decided to share her experience on Facebook to serve as a warning to other beachgoers

Climate change played a role in the episode at Popham Beach State Park, Maine's busiest state park beach, officials with the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry have said. Pictured is a file photo of beachgoers enjoying low tide at Popham Beach State Park

Quicksand, known as supersaturated sand, can be found worldwide, agriculture officials said.

People who are caught in supersaturated sand remain buoyant - people don't sink in quicksand - allowing them to float and wriggle themselves to safety, said Jim Britt, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

'People hear the word quicksand they think jungle movie. The reality with this supersaturated sand is you're not going to go under,' he said.

In Acord's case, climate change played a role in the episode at the state's busiest state park beach, which draws more than 225,000 visitors each year, Britt said. 

A series of winter storms rerouted a river that pours into the ocean, softening the sand in area where beachgoers are more apt to walk, necessitating the placement warning signs by park staff, he said.