Couple had been kayaking in Little Sarasota Bay before heading over to Midnight Pass Beach to swim in Gulf
The 67-year-old man who drowned in the Gulf off Siesta Key on Sept. 13 has been identified as Paul Arthur Kerns of 5619 Britannia Drive in Sarasota, The Sarasota News Leader has learned from the formal Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office report on the incident.
He was the parts manager of Sunset Chevrolet in Sarasota, the report notes.
Moreover, Kerns’ death occurred in the area of Midnight Pass, which has remained open since Hurricane Milton struck Siesta Key on the night of Oct. 9, 2024. The pass flows between Little Sarasota Bay and the Gulf.
The official time of Kerns’ Sept. 13 death was 10:47 a.m., as pronounced by a Sarasota County Fire Department firefighter/paramedic, the report says.
About 9:53 a.m. that Saturday, the report notes, a deputy was dispatched to 9230 Blind Pass Road, which is near the southern end of Siesta Key. Upon arrival, the deputy learned from the man who reported the incident, Robert Walters of Sarasota, that Walters had heard someone yelling for help on the Gulf side of the inlet. At that time, Walters explained, he was swimming in the Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) with members of his family.
When Walters went to investigate, he told the deputy, “he had a hard time crossing the [ICW] due to the strong outgoing tide …” When he reached the Gulf side, he continued, he saw four women pulling a man out of the water, so he went over to assist them. Walters added that “he assumed the [victim] was having a heart attack,” so the women began administering CPR to Kerns while Walters called 911.
One of the women, Karen Parker, told the deputy that she and Kerns had been kayaking in the ICW — of which Little Sarasota Bay is a part — when they decided to stop at Midnight Pass Beach to go swimming.
While they were on the Gulf side of the beach, Paker continued, “she got pulled out by the current, screamed for help, and [Kerns] went to help,” the report continues. As he was working with her to maneuver her out of the current, the report adds, she noticed that he started to go underwater, so she then tried to help him.
Kerns was underwater for about 2 to 5 minutes, Parker told the deputy. Several other women came to her aid and tried to “move him along the shoreline,” the report notes.
She confirmed to the deputy that the women began CPR as someone else called 911, the report says.
Two of the other women reported to the deputy that they were walking along the shoreline when they “heard a female yelling for help, and assisted her with removing the victim from the water.” They also said that they took turns doing CPR on the victim before paramedics arrived.
After the paramedic pronounced Kerns’ death, the report notes, an EMS unit transported him to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.
During a Sept. 9 presentation to the County Commission about the status of Midnight Pass, Mike Jenkins, a consultant to the county who is the senior principal engineer with ATM Geosyntec, said that the flow of water through the Midnight Pass had been measured. In February, he added, “The peak amount of water coming through the inlet … was on the order of 50 cubic meters per second.” He repeated the statement for emphasis. That amount of water, he pointed out, “can fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in less than a minute …”