Lake Bluff Man Drowns As Tide Rises While Trapped In Alaskan Mud Flats

LAKE BLUFF, IL — A Lake Bluff man drowned after becoming stuck while walking on tidal mud flats in Alaska, authorities said. Rescuers were unable to free him from the quicksand-like silt before the tide rose.

Zach Porter, 20, was submerged by the incoming tide prior to 6 p.m. Sunday in Turnagain Arm, an estuary south of Anchorage. His body was recovered about 12 hours later, according to state police.

Porter, a Lake Forest High School grad who went on to attend Washington University, was walking with friends near the community of Hope, a town of about 80 people.

One of his friends called 911, and Porter was about waist deep in the mud and about 50 to 100 feet from shore when the first rescuers arrived, fire officials said.

Kristy Peterson, administrator and lead EMT for the Hope-Sunrise Volunteer Fire Department, said the incident was heartbreaking for her whole team.

The dangerous mudflats appear to be solid but can suck people down, Peterson told the Associated Press, and the incoming tide loosens the glacier-pulverized silt and creates a vacuum effect.

“It’s big, it’s amazing, it’s beautiful, and it’s overwhelming,” Peterson, the administrator and lead EMT for the Hope-Sunrise Volunteer Fire Department, said of Alaska. “But you have to remember that it’s Mother Nature, and she has no mercy for humanity.”

Girdwood Fire Department Chief Michelle Weston told the Anchorage Daily News her department rescues two or three people from the mud flats every year, using a specialized tool to shoot water or air into the silt to break it up.

Although rescuers are not uncommon, Porter is the first person to die from being trapped in the mud flats since 34 years ago, when newly 18-year-old Adeana Dickison died after getting stuck in the mud while pushing an ATV that had also gotten stuck.

Porter, a member of the Lake Forest High School class of 2021, played and coached baseball and managed the Lake Bluff sailing camp before heading off to St. Louis for university.

LFHS Principal Erin Lenhart said in a statement that Porter was also a peer tutor, teaching assistant and sailing instructor.

"As proud of a Scout as Zach was, we are even more proud that he was a Scout," Lenhart said. He will be remembered and dearly missed."

Lenhart said the Porter family had long been involved in a local Wiffle Ball Charity Tournament, which raised more than $100,000 for cancer research and charities like Orphans of the Storm and Feed My Starving Children.

A profile in his high school paper during his junior year describes Porter as hardworking and extremely smart with a positive attitude — and who always found ways to make people laugh.

“Zach’s the type of guy to go out of his way to help someone out," classmate Luke Davis told The Forest Scout. "He’s just an overall great guy."

A memorial service for Porter is planned for 1 p.m. Sunday at Lake Bluff Beach.