Girlfriend of Man Who Fell Into Maui Blow Hole Says Warning Signs Should Have Been Posted
- Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:25pm by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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HONOLULU (AP) — The longtime girlfriend of the Northern California man who was sucked into a Maui blow hole said he wasn’t behaving foolishly and that there should have been warning signs.
Rocco Piganelli says this photo was taken moments before a man, in the spray at right, fell to his apparent death in a blow hole at Nakalele Point in Maui, Hawaii. The 44-year-old man, identified as David Potts of San Anselmo, Calif., has not been found since Saturday afternoon. (Rocco Piganelli / AP Photo)
Tika Hick told The Associated Press in a phone interview from San Anselmo, Calif., Friday that 44-year-old David Potts wasn’t dancing around the blow hole that shoots powerful bursts of water high into the air, contrary to eyewitness accounts of the Saturday incident.
Hick said she wasn’t with Potts when it happened, but her brother and sister-in-law were there and described the incident.
Maui County officials say they understand the location to be privately owned, preventing them from posting signs warning of the blow hole’s “obvious dangers.”
Hick said she and Potts were vacationing with their 6-month-old son because she is about to undergo a double mastectomy.
Earlier this week, Rocco Piganelli, of La Jolla, Calif., said he stared in horror as he watched a large wave push the tourist into the hole off Nakalele Point on Saturday afternoon. The man popped up briefly with the next wave, then disappeared.
“We all stared for like 30 seconds and then I realized – he’s gone. He’s down there,” Piganelli told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. “I felt like I was going to throw up.”
Piganelli, a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, readied himself to attempt to resuscitate the man, fully expecting him eventually surface. But the man never did.
“The girl who was with him let out this horrifying scream,” he said.
He and other tourists scrambled over a cliff to look for the man out in the ocean as powerful waves crashed violently against sharp rocks.
“In my heart, I kind of knew he wasn’t coming out,” Piganelli said. “I wanted to give him hope because it was all I could do.”
Erica Meyer, whose family was vacationing with Piganelli’s family, recalled thinking that it was foolish for the man to be mere inches from the blow hole’s opening.
“We‘re watching it thinking it’s crazy these guys are doing that,” she told the AP.
Potts stood in front of the blow hole with his back to the ocean when the wave hit, Meyer said. “It was very, very fast, within a matter of seconds.”
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Comments (172)
EyebrowsLaMana
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:09pmThank You Natural selection.
Report Post »Zer0
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:23pm@EyeBrowsLaMana,
Lulz!!!
Report Post »Professional Infidel
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:28pmperhaps he was Bullet proof and 10 feet tall!! perhaps it was the Maui Wowi, or stupid.
Report Post »jb.kibs
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:53pma sign that reads… “beware, the water may randomly push you into the hole” ?
Report Post »obamanation
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 10:15pmThat was Hella stupid!!
(Hella: A multi-purpose word invented by *stupid* people in Northern California;
Report Post »http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hella)
jzs
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 10:33pmThere’s a great book called “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon.” The book lists every know death in Grand Canyon. The interesting facts? Most deaths are a result of the “Disneyland syndrome.” People, adults, think that, yeah it’s scary, but it must be safe, like scary rides at an amusement park. Those kind of people get killed at the Grand Canyon and elsewhere. The natural world is regulated by OSHA.
Most interesting fact from the book: there is no record of a child ever dying in the Grand Canyon. They know better than to walk up to a ledge with a 1000 foot drop and sit on it. Children instictively stay away from the hazards.
Report Post »DatabaseSue
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 11:15pmJZS – you need to get an updated Grand Canyon book – I believe it was 2009 that a young child did fall off the edge of the Grand Canyon – the child had been told several times to get back from the edge, but didn’t listen to the parents – but then the parents neglected to keep control of the child – it was very sad
Report Post »Hobbs57
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 11:43pm@J.B – That’s hilarious – Thank You for the laugh !!
Report Post »Therightsofbilly
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 1:55am@JZS WROTE:
“There’s a great book called “Over the Edge: Death in Grand Canyon.” The book lists every know death in Grand Canyon”.
Yea, that sounds like a real page turner to me ???????????????????
Report Post »Czar Casm
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 10:22am@ jzs
Notice where the kids are in the photo. Perhaps they do know better.
Report Post »alrunner58
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:06pmCommon sense maybe? Idiots.
Report Post »TexOkie
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:05pmIt‘s always someone else’s fault. Isn’t it!
Report Post »macnkat
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:33pmOnly if you’re a San Francisco liberal.
Report Post »BeingThere
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:05pmHow about a sign in every womb: “Exit at your own risk!“ and ”Caution, do not back up!”
Report Post »BlkWdow
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 12:39amawesome!
Report Post »last frontier
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:03pmHELLOOOOOO, it’s a HOLE! how much warning do you need.
Report Post »BeingThere
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:03pmBad things happen sometimes, signs don’t help. How about signs at the ballot box: “Caution, don’t elect a communist POS!” Would it have helped?
Report Post »FstEti
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:27pmUnfortunately, no. See, you’re assuming the electorate can read English.
Report Post »FstEti
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:01pmYou’re absolutely correct; pointing out stupidity is EXACTLY like sawing a head off a living human being or blowing yourself to smithereens so that you can take multiple victims with you. Nope, I see no difference at all.
Report Post »Thank you for your thoughtful and compassionate comment.
Zer0
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:01pm“The longtime girlfriend of the Northern California man who was sucked into a Maui blow hole said…that there should have been warning signs.”
Ladies and gentlemen, this mentality is the root cause of the senseless litigation in our country!
Darwan award anyone?
Report Post »ChristinaJ
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 9:59amNo Darwin award, they had a 6 month old. Hopefully the stupid doesn’t breed true.
Report Post »ivy524
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:00pmTo YetiBunker. You’re wrong! Obama won’t ban blowholes, He’ll slap a heavy tax on the property owner and all visitors!
Report Post »Kai Wan
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:59pmblow hole? sounds like he went to a pos obama speech.
Report Post »dscon
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:54pmyes foolish like diving off a stadium balcony for a fly ball!
Really sad stuff…..i dont think we all need bungie cords or jolly jumpers
Report Post »tied to our butt’s either though!
Arizona4Ever
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:48pmOf course there should be a sign. It should read: “Beware of stupid people standing too close to the blow-hole.”
Report Post »FstEti
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:45pmYep, and there should be a chain link completely around the Grand Canyon. Topped with razor wire. With 24/7 unionized guards.
Report Post »You simply cannot fix stupid.
hersey10
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:51pmThe comment above is great , I can’t top it .
Report Post »FstEti
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:57pmThank you.I‘m just grateful that he wasn’t black or we’d have Shelia Jackson Lee to contend with regarding this story.
Report Post »As I said, you can’t fix stupid…………
RepubliCorp
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:02pmYou can fix stupid…….push them into a blow hole
Report Post »vires montesque vincimus
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:42pmFoolish people sometimes do foolish things. Sometimes it leads to their death. Not the first and won’t be the last. Ever seen anyone ran over by a tank because they did something stupid? I have, he deserved what he got. It’s that simple.
Report Post »OnfireNY
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:41pmCommon sense says not to get close to a dangerous blow hole!! He should have used his head and the girlfriend should have told him not to get too close. Take responsibility for your actions. It’s not the states fault it was his.
Report Post »CrazyAzBiker
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:39pmLook in the photo above the guy to the right of the blow hole… I see an evil face in the spray above him…. scarey! Poor guy… what a way to go. I hope he went fast…. May you be with the Lord my brother.
Report Post »RSHLUVER
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:55pmThere is a spooky ghost face. Wow!!!
Report Post »mossbrain
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:37pmThat does look like the face of some of those Islander warrior masks. It’s possible the spirits were angered by one too many tourists peeing in their sacred blow hole and decided to suck that fool in.
We were at some sacred place in the hills above Waimea Bay on Oahu where they used to sacrifice people and it still smelled like rotting corpses, either they are still sacrificing animals there or the death is still there. We did experience some sort of unusual perceptions.
Report Post »Charybdis
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 10:17pmActually, it kind of look like Barney Fife. That IS scary!
Report Post »FstEti
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 10:52pmSince we’re discussing blow holes,it would be more scary if it looked like Barney Frank.
Report Post »Just saying……….
SLmanDR
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 11:34pmI see a beautiful shapely feminine figure in the spray. What’s up with you?
Report Post »That’s probably what drew him into the blow hole. He saw an enticing figure that drew him in.
leftylemn
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:39pmAnd the sign would read…WARNING your husband is an idiot?
Report Post »sooner12
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:37pmAs the title of this article seems to inducate………I smell a lawsuit is coming.
Report Post »Wes Hardin
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 2:51amThe sad thing is that there is probably people even more stupid than the dead guy who would make up the jury and award damages.
Report Post »boxy
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:37pmThere is not warning signs in life guys.
Report Post »BlkWdow
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 12:54amright!
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:36pmEvery Mac Truck should have a Sign Saying “DO NOT STAND IN FRONT OF ME”
Report Post »Every hammer should have “DO NOT BASH BRAINS IN, WITH THIS OBJECT” labels.
Actually forget all that. I think Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection works Just fine !!!
BlkWdow
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 12:55amWere’s the new plague when you need it?
Report Post »iyam
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:35pmyou know what is wrong with society? Darwin is not allowed to do his work as he normally has been able to do. he use to be thin out the heard., now ignorance is allowed to slip through the crack a lot more than normal
Report Post »milo
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:35pmDeath by misadventure. Sad.
Report Post »yetibunker
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:34pmnow obama is going to ban blowholes
Report Post »ProbIemSoIver
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:10pmHow would he make his speeches, then?
Report Post »Clean Patriot
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:29pmWhat an idiot this person must have been. Maybe he went to Public Schools
Report Post »conservative_teacher
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:39pmThe only idiot here is the one who takes a tragedy and uses it to bash public schools–something that same idiot most likely has no clue about or has ever worked in or for. Grow up.
Report Post »randy
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:51pmLighten Up Teach! I agree with him……
Report Post »FstEti
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 9:48pmUh, oh, a little too close to home, “Teacher”? Methinks thou dost protest too much.
Report Post »I’ll wait while you look that up……………
freeus
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 11:35pm@CONSERVATIVE_TEACHER
Report Post »So does this mean you are going to defend public schools? Pathetic.
dscon
Posted on July 16, 2011 at 10:45amconservative_teacher
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:39pm
The only idiot here is the one who takes a tragedy and uses it to bash public schools–something that same idiot most likely has no clue about or has ever worked in or for. Grow up.
teacher:
Report Post »Teacher are u a union member?
I.Gaspar
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 8:29pmsad incident…but common sense seemed to be missing here.
Report Post »