Update: 9:30 a.m.: Southold Town Police said that when, at approximately 4:30 a.m. on Thursday, Brandon McCurie and Angel Hernandez came ashore in Clinton, Connecticut, they began seeking help by banging on doors. A resident of Clinton called 911. When police arrived, they located Hernandez and brought him to the hospital for treatment of hypothermia. McCurie was last seen running from the area, wearing only shorts, police said. Clinton police brought in a K-9 unit and are still actively looking for Brandon McCurie. Angel Hernandez is scheduled to be released from the medical facility later today, police said.
Update 5:25 a.m. Two men who were stranded on the Long Island Sound after they set off from Greenporton a raft have been located alive and safe on the Clinton, Connecticut shoreline, according to United States Coast Guard Long Island Sound sector.
The men, the USCG said, drifted across the rain-tossed Sound, until a call came in at approximately 4:30 a.m. that they had reached the shore. One man was taken to Middlesex Shoreline Clinic for treatment. According to the Clinton, Connecticut police, the second man walked off the rescue scene and has not yet been located.
According to the USCG, it was lucky that the men were found alive, setting off with only one oar and no life jackets.
Update: 3:29 a.m.: Police have identified the two men missing after they set off on a raft Wednesday as Angel Hernandez, 33, and Brandon McCurie, 33, both of Greenport.
According to Southold Town police, a call came in at 6:06 p.m. from a homeowner on the Long Island Sound, sating that he saw what appeared to be a small boat with possibly two people aboard, approximately two miles from shore off Horton’s Point, drifting northeast. Police said a patrol responded and by then, the object was barely visible and not certain to be a boat; Southold bay constables responded and conducted a search from the last known point of sight to East Marion and north to the boarder of Connecticut, with negative results.
Just as the bay constables were returning to dock in Mattituck Inlet, Southold Police said they received a call from a Greenport woman, 20, who stated she’d received a call from McCurie, who told her that he and Hernandez were “drifting east fast” and were unable to get to shore. Johnston was interviewed and she said Hernandez and McCurie had launched a small inflatable boat from 56075 Route 48 Greenport at about 4:30 on Wednesday, texting a picture to Johnston that showed only one paddle in the boat.
Determining that Hernandez and McCurie were most likely the two individuals seen earlier, Southold bay constables returned to the earlier scene and continued to search to the east. Two Suffolk County police helicopters assisted in the search. Orient and East Marion Fire Department also personnel assisted by conducting a search of the shoreline on foot from Rocky Point in East Marion east to Orient Point. Coast Guard boats from New London and Montauk assisted in the search as well as boats from Orient Fire Department and Plum Island. The search will continue throughout the night by the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard confirmed that the search was ongoing as of 3:30 a.m. “The search conditions are less than ideal, with the rain and reduced visibility,” said Mark Averil, command duty officer of the United States Coast Guard Station Long Island Sound. “It’s a black night out there,” he said. “Our searchers are having a little difficulty with the weather.” But, he assured, “We’re looking. We don’t give up.”
Original story: Two men who went out for a ride on a raft with only one paddle and no life jackets could be in peril as weather deteriorated Wednesday night, according to the United States Coast Guard.
According to Mark Averil, command duty officer of United States Coast Guard Station Long Island Sound, two men in their 30s left a beach residence, located on the Long Island Sound in Greenport, Wednesday night on a six-to-seven-foot inflatable gray raft at about 5 p.m.
The pair had been working in the area and staying in the house, said a woman who knew them, who also called 911. According to Averil, the men were last heard from at 7 p.m., when they texted to say they were having trouble getting into shore off the coast of Orient.
“That’s the last we’ve heard from them,” Averil said.
The search is active and ongoing, with Southold Town police aviation and patrol units, Orient and East Marion fire departments, a Suffolk County Police Department helicopter, a Coast Guard vessel and a cutter are all searching in the vicinity, he said.
Southold Police at Truman’s Beach in Orient said the search encompassed the stretch of coastline from the Soundview out to Orient. An officer at the scene said the Southold bay constable had reported conditions that weren’t yet too bad. Southold police said the plan was to turn over the search to the Coast Guard around midnight, because the town “did not have the resources” to continue to search through the night.
The search began around 7 p.m. and was ongoing as of 11 p.m.
But the scenario worsens with each passing hour, Averil added. “The bad thing is that the weather is deteriorating rapidly,” Averil said. “We’ve got a 20 mile per hour front sliding from east to west across the Sound. It’s not good weather, and they’re in a six to seven foot raft. They found it on the beach and decided to take a ride with only one paddle and no life jackets,” he said. “We’re all actively searching.”
