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NYPD rescue doctor stranded by high tide

Police sent helicopters, boats, and a “barrage of emergency vehicles” to save the doctor and his family from rising water

By John Annese
New York Daily News

NEW YORK — A Bronx doctor out for a Christmas morning stroll with his family along Orchard Beach found himself trapped by the rising tide and in need of a police rescue.

Eugene Fine, who specializes in nuclear medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, learned the hard way about how fast the tide comes in when he, his wife and her brother and sister walked out to one of the Twin Islands off the Bronx beach.

They chatted atop a high jetty, unaware of the water rising around them.

“We didn’t see it because we were up high on the rocks. And then we headed down heading back, and noticed that the water in front of us was now up to our knees,” the 70-year-old City Island resident said.

Nature called, leading Fine to break away briefly from the group briefly.

When Fine tried to rejoin his relatives, he realized he’d already been cut off from them by the rising water, and he didn’t want to risk the trip.

When he realized the tide wouldn’t recede for hours, he called 911.

Police sent helicopters, boats, and a “barrage of emergency vehicles,” Fine said. ”I was just rather astonished at the response.”

“There were about 40 people standing on the other island looking at me. I realized I had been discovered,” he quipped.

An NYPD Harbor Unit boat pulled up and took him on board. Fine told them he was not hurt, and soon rejoined his family.

One of the medics asked, “So I assume you won’t be doing this anymore?” he recounted. But Fine said he won’t let the experience keep him from exploring the beach.

“Next time I’m going to consult the tide table a little bit more closely,” he said.

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©2018 New York Daily News

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