After hearing the cries of her young sons struggling to stay afloat in the strong current at Florida's Panama Beach City, Roberta Ursrey and other members of her family attempted to rescue 11-year-old Noah and eight-year-old Stephen.
Instead they ended up becoming stuck themselves.
They were spotted by Tabatha Monroe and her wife Brittany, who swam over to the boys and grabbed onto their boogie boards. Soon, they too were unable to make it back to shore.
Several young men managed to get hold of Brittany, but couldn’t save the others.
Ms Ursrey was now stuck in the rip along with her 27-year-old nephew, her 67-year-old mother and her husband.
Another couple were also treading water nearby.
Almost 20 minutes after being stranded in the water, Ms Ursrey and her family were growing increasingly exhausted.
With no lifeguard on duty, local authorities were waiting for a rescue boat to arrive.
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Jessica and Derek Simmons had been walking along the beach when they noticed lights and emergency services close to the beach.
Ms Simmons, an experienced swimmer, rushed to help the stranded swimmers, encouraging around 80 bystanders to form a human chain.
She later posted on Facebook describing the incident.
“I can hold my breath underwater and go around an olympic pool with ease,” she said.
“I knew I could get them to the human chain of people that wanted to help.”
Ms Simmons and her husband swam out and passed the exhausted people down the chain back to the beach.
Ms Ursrey said she was so tired she blacked out and woke up on the sand.
Nearly an hour after the emergency began, all of the swimmers were back on dry land.
Ms Ursrey’s mother, who suffered a heart attack in the water, is in a stable condition in hospital. The Ursrey family said they plan to meet up with the Simmons once she is released.
“I owe my life and my family’s life to them,” she said.
“Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”
- with wires
