A lifeguard widely praised as a hero after
Superstorm Sandy for rescuing neighbours
endangered by rolling floodwaters and a
fire that destroyed several homes in a
small community where grief has been a
frequent visitor has died in a surfing
accident in Puerto Rico.
The death of 23-year-old Dylan Smith on
Sunday brought sadness again to
residents of the Belle Harbor section of
the Rockaways, which lost several police
officers and firefighters in the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks and was the site of a
deadly plane crash just months later.
As word spread that Smith, who used his
surfboard to ferry so many people to
safety during the late October
superstorm, had lost his life, a Heroes of
Rockaway Facebook page said: "R.I.P. to
Dylan Smith, our Rockaway Hero,
tragically died this morning surfing in
Puerto Rico. He will never be forgotten."
Troy Bradwisch, who lives on the same
street as the Smith family, said the
presumed drowning death was "crushing"
for the neighborhood.
"It was more shocking than anything," he
said. "You can go through the storm and
all that, and he goes on vacation to get a
sense of normalcy and something like that
happens."
Marguerite Wetzel, a Montauk resident
who knows the Smith family from trips to
Puerto Rico, could barely talk about the
death.
"I have two sons, and he exemplified
everything you would want your sons to
be. I'm going to start tearing up," she
said, her voice cracking.
Smith had lived with his parents and a 19-
year-old brother when he was not at
college. Fire Department of New York
Chief Michael Light, a longtime friend of
Smith's recently retired firefighter father,
said someone who was with Smith in
waters off Maria's Beach in the Puerto
Rican community of Rincon notified him of
the death.
"We know he died in the water while he
was surfing. It's under investigation as to
the cause," Light said. "I believe he was
with some friends."
Smith's body was found floating near his
surfboard, police said. Authorities said a
resident of the Puerto Rican town, whose
beaches attract surfers from across the
world, spotted Smith in the water and
took him to shore. They said a doctor
tried to resuscitate him.
Light said Smith rescued as many as a
dozen people during the superstorm by
paddling from porch to porch with his
surfboard, moving the helpless, including
children and the elderly, from imperiled
perches amid swirling floodwaters and a
sky filled with flames from a gas line
explosion as more than a dozen homes
around him burned to the ground.
"It was totally brave and selfless," Light
said.
People magazine, which named Smith one
of its Heroes of the Year, credited Smith
and neighbor Michael McDonnell with
rescuing six people trapped by the flood
and fire by connecting electric cords and
twine into a makeshift rope that could be
gripped as they walked the surfboard with
people on it to safety at the storm's
height.
The flood and fire occurred in a Queens
neighborhood with an unusually high
population of police officers and
firefighters, which might explain why a
higher proportion of residents lost their
lives on Sept. 11 than just about
anywhere else. Two months later,
American Airlines Flight 587 smashed into
a home, killing 265 people and setting off
fires that destroyed the homes of those
living around Smith and his family.
The Smith family home was spared again
during Superstorm Sandy when fires
destroyed neighbors' homes and the
Harbor Light Restaurant, where Smith
sometimes worked as a bartender.
Smith, who helped neighbors clean up and
rebuild after the storm, had gone recently
to Puerto Rico, where his family had a
home in the popular beach town. Light
said he could understand if Smith wanted
some relief from the destruction in Belle
Harbor.
"It's tough to look at," he said. "He
figured rather than look out the window
at the destruction here, post Sandy, all
the rebuilding, he was going to take a
little break and do a little surfing in
Puerto Rico and get away for a while."
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