Music Teacher Dies Saving Two Children From Being Carried Out To Sea By Rip Current

A music teacher died Sunday after jumping to the rescue of two children who were caught in a rip current at a beach in southeastern North Carolina, police said.

Authorities received reports about multiple swimmers being in distress. Emergency crews arrived at 5:45 p.m. ET and witnesses told them two children were caught in a rip current, the Kure Beach Police Department said in a news release, according to ABC 11.

Authorities at the Kure Beach Fire Department were joined by witnesses in their efforts to save the kids. The children were brought to safety at the shore. However, the teacher, Jessica Lea Embry, became distressed as she helped the crews to save the children.

Embry was brought to the shore where emergency personnel performed CPR on her but couldn’t save her. Embry was pronounced dead at the scene. Another rescuer was taken to the hospital for observation, the outlet reported.

Embry taught fine arts at Ashley High School and also served as the director of the school’s orchestra, according to WSOC-TV.

In April, a father in Florida died while attempting to rescue his three children from a rip current. Pete Rosengren’s three children, aged 7, 12 and 14 years, got into the water with a few other children and encountered a problem. A rip current caught the kids and started to pull them toward the expansive waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Rosengren jumped into the harsh flowing water himself after seeing the kids in distress. He ended up getting swept into the deeper waters and passed out at some point. Lifeguards performed CPR on him and took him to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A total of 100 people drown due to rip current in the U.S. every year. Rip current occurs when water pushed far by surf or wind returns to sea through narrow, concentrated channels. Rip currents can be anywhere from 10 to 200 feet in length.