By Troy Wolverton
The San Jose Mercury News
SAN CARLOS, Calif. — A 63-year-old woman got stuck in the mud off Pillar Point Harbor during a low-tide event Saturday afternoon and had to be freed by rescue workers.
The area experienced a “negative tide” that started around Saturday morning and fully exposed the harbor’s reef by mid-afternoon. Areas that are usually up to 8 feet underwater were made visible by the event.
Sometime after 3 p.m., as the reef became visible, the woman, a San Carlos resident, sank waist-deep into the exposed mud, said Ari Delay, a battalion chief with the Coastside Fire Protection District.
Bystanders tried to free the woman, whom Delay declined to identify, but were unable to do so.
About a dozen rescue workers from the fire protection district, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Department, Pillar Point Harbormaster’s Office and American Medical Response ambulance service eventually freed the woman about 5:15 p.m., Delay said.
The woman was uninjured. Rescue workers took her to her car after the incident.
“The mud here is a lot different than it usually is,” thanks to the negative tide, Delay said. The tide event attracted thousands of people to the harbor, he said.
“The streets here are blocked up,” Delay said.
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