A woman's day at the beach turned into a scene from a horror movie after she became caught in quicksand.
Now, quicksand was often depicted in old movies and cartoons as being incredibly dangerous and something that can lead to tragedy in a matter of minutes. In fact, according to Slate, nearly 3% of the movies in the 1960s featured a character sinking in some form of quicksand. And many Looney Tunes fans will remember characters like Daffy Duck navigating the perils of quicksand.
And although most people's experience with quicksand will be nothing more than these fictional tales from films and TV shows, the threat of quicksand is still very real and prevalent - as one woman's story proves.
As reported by PEOPLE, Jamie Acord had been strolling with her husband, Patrick, along the Popham Beach State Park in Phippsburg, Maine, when panic suddenly set in.
The couple was walking along the seafront when she suddenly "dropped like rock" and was unable to get out.
"Literally it was kind of like I just dropped into a manhole cover," Acord recalled to PEOPLE. "We're walking along, just talking, and all of a sudden I went into the sand."
"I was there and then the next minute I wasn't," she told NBC affiliate WCSH.
As somebody who goes to "that beach all the time", the couple found themselves not knowing the best thing to do. "This is a new thing that's never happened before," she said.
Luckily, Jamie's husband was able to pull her free, and she only suffered a few minor scrapes. However, she is now sharing her story to warn others about this very real danger - as others may not be so lucky to have somebody by their side.
"And as soon as he pulled me out, we turned around to look to see what had occurred because we just assumed I'd fallen in an actual hole and there was nothing there," Acord said. "It looked just like the beach. It had filled itself right back in."
"If the beach is clearing out, there's only one or two people on the beach and you fall in something like that and you don't know what to do or you can't get out, you're kind of stuck," she warned.
It is believed that the nearby river naturally redirecting itself several years ago led to the surrounding sand becoming unstable, per CBS 13.
But despite Jamie's experience, experts say that quicksand actually poses very little threat to human life.
Jim Britt, a spokesperson for the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, tells KCTV5 News that the human body can remain buoyant in quicksand, allowing people to simply wriggle free.
“People hear the word quicksand they think jungle movie. The reality with this supersaturated sand is you’re not going to go under,” Britt said.
Nevertheless, it would seem that Jamie's experience is one none of us would like to experience.
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