Two men who went missing Wednesday night after they set off from Greenport to go rafting on the Long Island Sound had been drinking, according to Connecticut police.
Connecticut Police Sergeant Jeremiah Dunn said Thursday that “alcohol was involved” in the incident and that the Brandon McCurie, of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Angel Hernandez, of Poughkeepsie, NY, both 33, had either been drinking before they boarded the raft or while they were out on the Sound. The pair texted a friend when they realized they were in trouble. The search continued all night, as the men floated toward the Connecticut shoreline.
The men had been working in the area, according to sources.
Earlier on Thursday, Southold Town Police said that when, at approximately4:30 a.m. on Thursday, McCurie and Hernandez came ashore in Clinton, Connecticut, they began seeking help by banging on doors. A female resident of Clinton opened the door and called 911. When police arrived, they located Hernandez and brought him to the hospital for treatment of hypothermia. McCurie was seen running from the area, wearing only shorts, police said. Clinton police brought in a K-9 unit to search for McCurie, who was later found. Police said he may have been suffering from “psychological effects of the hypothermia”. Also assisting in the detailed search for McCurie were Connecticut State Police, members of the Clinton and Westbrook Fire Departments, and EMS divisions.
McCurie, Dunn said, was found at 11 a.m. near #9 Groveway, “walking away from a residence adjacent to the street. He claims he took shelter in a garbage can because it was raining extremely heavily at the time, and he was wearing only a pair of shorts.”
Dunn said he had questions about the story. “He claims he was so exhausted he went in the garbage can to get out of the elements and fell asleep. But with all the fire apparatus and police cars and news media down there, 300 feet from where he claims he was sleeping, we have reason to believe he might not be telling us the truth. He was pretty dry for a person who was out all night. Maybe he thought he was in trouble.”
The bottom line, Dunn said, is that police wanted to help and to ensure both men received medical assistance. No charges were filed.
The pair, Dunn said, knocked on the woman’s door just before 4 a.m. and told her their raft had floated up onshore. A sleepy summer town, many of the homes in Clinton were vacant for the year, Dunn said; the pair went to the closest occupied home.
“The woman called and told us she had two guys, soaking wet, one in a bathing suit, who’d just washed ashore,” he said. “She said she’d call for help and he (McCurie) bolted.”
Meanwhile, Hernandez told police that the oar had broken. “That’s how they encountered trouble,” he said, adding that the vessel was “just a rubber raft. It’s not seaworthy.” Of the fact that they survived, Dunn said simply, “It’s a miracle.”
When he arrived at the scene Wednesday morning, Dunn, who grew up on in Clinton, a small beach town, said the conditions were so poor and dark, he was unable to see the small Duck Island, just a half mile offshore. “It was so rough, they must have lost their sense of perspective,” he said. “They spent 12 hours on that rubber raft, with no way to tell which way they were going.”
Hernandez, Dunn said, went voluntarily to an emergency clinic in Westbrook affiliated with the Shoreline Medical Center in Middlesex, and called a taxi to take him back to the Cross Sound Ferry once he was released.
Once McCurie was found, he, too, was taken to be treated for hypothermia.
Reflecting on the experience, Dunn said, of the happy ending, “It’s amazing. I’ve been in law enforcement for over 30 years. Usually when we go to these calls, there’s a tragic ending, and someone doesn’t make it. I don’t know if they just had the will to survive, or the Good Lord was looking over them. Once I heard the story of how they were out there in that little boat, I thought, ‘If I were them, I’d be buying lottery tickets.'”
Representatives of United States Coast Guard sector Long Island Sound, who searched for the men, along with Southold Town police aviation and patrol units, Orient and East Marion fire departments, and a Suffolk County Police Department helicopter, said and it was lucky that the men were found alive, as they’d set off with only one oar and no life jackets.
SoutholdLOCAL photo of rafter Brandon McCurie, courtesy of Clinton Police Department.
