Driftwood log crushes Oregon beachgoer after ‘sneaker wave’ strikes, rescuers say

A “sneaker wave” rolled a driftwood log onto an Oregon beachgoer Saturday, hospitalizing her, Nehalem Bay Fire & Rescue officials wrote on Facebook.

The woman had been sitting on the log on Manzanita Beach south of Astoria when a surprise wave pushed it over on top of her, seriously injuring her chest and back, KPTV reported. A helicopter airlifted her to a Portland hospital, where she’s expected to recover.

“Never turn your back on the ocean,” Nehalem Bay Fire & Rescue officials warned on Facebook.

The National Weather Service defines sneaker waves as “larger-than-average swells that can suddenly and without warning surge dozens of feet higher up the beach than expected, overtaking the unwary.”

“For much of the West Coast, sneaker waves kill more people than all other weather hazards combined,” the National Weather Service says. The waves can drag people out to sea or roll logs or rocks onto beachgoers.

“People arriving on the beach see the smaller waves and assume they are not going to run up on the beach any higher than what they are currently observing,” the agency says. “Based on what they see, they get too close to the water and stop paying attention.”

The National Weather Service says sneaker waves can wash 150 feet or more onto the beach from the ocean.

Driftwood logs rolled by sneaker waves are particularly dangerous because they are often wet and weigh hundreds of pounds, the agency says.

Research suggests sneaker waves may be spawned by distant storms, but researchers are still working on how to predict or detect the dangerous waves, Phys.org reports.

Sneaker waves may be related to “rogue waves,” which occur out to sea and can be twice as large as other waves, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

This story was originally published March 25, 2019 at 7:49 AM with the headline "Driftwood log crushes Oregon beachgoer after ‘sneaker wave’ strikes, rescuers say."