2 Mountain Brook teens and woman seriously injured in back-to-back shark attacks along Florida Gulf Coast
Two teenagers and one woman were transported to local medical centers with critical to stable conditions.
Two teenagers and one woman were transported to local medical centers with critical to stable conditions.
Two teenagers and one woman were transported to local medical centers with critical to stable conditions.
Three people were seriously injured Friday in two separate shark attacks along Florida's Gulf Coast.
Two teen girls who were attacked are from Mountain Brook, according to a city official.
Around 1:20 p.m., the Office reported that a 45-year-old woman was injured in a shark attack in Founders Lane at Watersound Beach, Florida.
The woman, who had reportedly swum past the beach's first sandbar with her husband, suffered "significant trauma to her midsection and pelvic area" and lost the lower portion of her left arm, according to the South Walton Fire District.
She was immediately treated on the beach before being airlifted to the HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital, where she remains in critical condition.
Less than two hours later and just four miles east, the Walton County Sheriff's Office and South Walton Fire District responded to a second shark attack near Sandy Shores Court off Seacrest Beach.
Fire officials said a shark attacked two teen girls who were swimming in waist-deep water with a group of friends just inside the beach's first sandbar.
One of the girls suffered significant injuries to one upper and one lower extremity, both of which required tourniquets. She was airlifted to Ascension Sacred Heart Pensacola, where she remains in critical condition.
The second girl received a "flesh wound" to her right foot and is in stable condition.
Officials with the South Walton Fire District say that multiple citizens with medical expertise were on the scene and rendered "life-saving aid."
"These types of incidents, while we've had some of those here along our history, they're highly unusual, extremely unusual for two to happen in the same afternoon and within four miles of each other," said South Walton Fire District Chief Ryan Crawford.
Double red flags were flying across Walton County Beaches, officially closing the Gulf of Mexico to the public until further notice.
Earlier that day, the South Walton Fire District put up yellow and purple flags for moderate surf hazards and stinging marine life.
The Walton County Sheriff's Office said that the last shark incident in Walton County was in June 2021. A 14-year-old survived a bite in the chest after swimming 40 yards from the shore in Grayton State Park.