Tourists saw Calif. man fall into Maui blow hole

[shanti]

HONOLULU -- Witnesses who watched a Northern California man get sucked into a Maui blow hole to his apparent death say that the tourist was dancing around and frolicking in the sprays of water moments before a wave knocked him down.

Rocco Piganelli, of La Jolla, Calif., said he stared in horror as he watched a large wave push the tourist into the hole off Nakalele Point on Saturday afternoon. The man popped up briefly with the next wave, then disappeared.

"We all stared for like 30 seconds and then I realized - he's gone. He's down there," Piganelli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I felt like I was going to throw up."



Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/07/13/3768367/tourists-saw-calif-man-fall-into.html#ixzz1S61RKJei





scary stuff!

[xchrom]

1. Sad & scary. Nt

[gratuitous]

2. Yikes

As they say in those old movies, what a way to go. Nature is full of powerful forces that don't give a crap about you, and if you get too close they will kill you.

[devilgrrl]

3. Oy vey!!! Be careful!

:-(

[Ikonoklast]

4. People on vacation sometimes forget caution.

Sad end.

[reorg]

5. didn't know what a blow hole is

so I looked it up and found an explanation at

http://www.hawaiiweb.com/maui/sites_to_see/NakaleleBlowhole.htm

where readers are cautioned to

"Monitor the ocean conditions continuously as rouge waves may endanger you as the trail nears the water."

Something for Mineralman to attend to.

[pansypoo53219]

6. had a worse thing in milwaukee.

young guy rented a wood chipper and got his clothes caught in a branch or the mechanics and zip. you are gone. so, sort of makes fargo more or less gruesome.

[shanti]

8. yikes!

or a meat grinder, which happened here in cali. i imagine that blowhole was like a meat grinder with all of the lava rock. :(

[MrScorpio]

7. That's sort of like nature's way of weeding out the dumbasses, right?

Who in their right mind would dance around a dangerous blowhole?

[Lance_Boyle]

10. The newest Mrs. Limbaugh? n/t

[MrScorpio]

11. You just won the internets nt

[Vehl]

9. sad

I wish people are a bit more cautious around such stuff...nature is not to be taken lightly.