The fact that Ocean Shores had “decommissioned” its surf rescue team as a cost-saving item in the 2013 city budget never occurred to Jim Brannan as he clung to his overturned boat north of Damon Point for nearly an hour, watching responding police and firefighters arrive on the shore.
“The public doesn’t know,” Brannan said Monday night after he went to the City Council to tell of his June 6 ordeal and question why no one would — or could — do more than shoot a lifeline toward him to help pull him ashore. “When I was in that water, I thought I was not going to make it.”
“You cannot have a beach community and not have a surf rescue. The public needs to know that if you’re out there, you are pretty much on your own,” he said.