Woman plunges into quicksand on Maine beach, officials say. ‘I can’t get out!’

A woman was walking along a Maine beach with her husband when she unexpectedly plunged into a quicksand pit, she says.

Jamie Acord was at Popham Beach State Park on Saturday, June 1, when it happened, she said in a June 3 Facebook post. According to Acord, she and her husband were “enjoying a leisurely stroll on the beach along the high tide mark” when she suddenly sank into the ground.

“I can’t get out!” she screamed after falling into the sand, Acord told the Associated Press.

“One minute I was there and the next I was not,” she said in the post.

Acord was submerged up to her hips in the wet sand, she added. She struggled to find a way to climb out, searching for something she could cling to or push off of, but there was nothing, she said in the post.

“I could not feel the bottom and I could not get a footing,” Acord said. “Had I been a small child I would have disappeared into the hole.”

Her husband pulled her out and the hole soon vanished, she said.

Following the scare, Acord spoke to authorities about what happened. Rangers said they are aware of “quicksand like sand” appearing on the beaches, which is being caused by “flooding and erosion over the last year,” Acord said.

Popham Beach State Park managers issued a warning about quicksand after they say several people have gotten their legs stuck in sinkholes, WFXT reported.

Sean Vaillancourt with the state’s Bureau of Parks and Lands told the outlet that it’s best to remain calm if trapped in a sinkhole.

“Just take your time and crawl out if you have to,” Vaillancourt said, according to WFXT. “You can also lean forward or back in a floating position. The more you can disperse your weight over that, the more you can move freely.”

McClatchy News has reached out to Maine officials for more information.

Supersaturated sand, better known as quicksand, is known to occur in Maine, state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry spokesman Jim Britt told the AP.

The good news is quicksand isn’t as dangerous as it’s often portrayed, Britt said, adding that people are generally able float in quicksand and don’t sink to the bottom.

“People hear the word quicksand they think jungle movie. The reality with this supersaturated sand is you’re not going to go under,” he told the outlet.

Popham Beach State Park is a roughly 110-mile drive southwest of Bangor.

This story was originally published June 9, 2024 at 11:41 AM with the headline "Woman plunges into quicksand on Maine beach, officials say. ‘I can’t get out!’."