Name: Rip Current in Guam, August 20, 2001
Start: 2001-08-20T08:55
End: 2001-08-20T09:55
Location: Guam

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 4
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS GUA wrote it up.

Strong swells generated by winds in a monsoon surge created high surf and strong currents along the western reef line of Guam Four male Japanese tourist (two 16 year old and two 17 year old). The incident occurred before 900 behind the Fujita Guam Tumon Beach Hotel. Guam EPA technician Danzel Narcis was on the beach at the time. He heard someone yelling and waving there hands as they struggled in the strong currents. He tried to swim out to the youths, but found that the current was too strong. A nearby vendor who rents recreational beach equipment called 911 while Narcis and Guam EPA biologist Jesse Cruz grabbed two kayaks from the vendor. They tied the ends of the boats together because one kayak was too small for two people. Narcis battled the current and reached the distressed swimmer, who grabbed onto the the trailing kayak before Narcis paddled back to shore. He then paddled back to save another tourist, who was clinging onto the coral bed at the reef line. Rescue units from the Guam Police Department's Marine Patrol boat unit rescued two other tourist from the same group. The tourist were caught in a channel in which the current streams back from the beach into the ocean. The tourist were treated for cuts, scrapes and exhaustion.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS GUA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Aug 20, 3:55 AM SST, 5 hours earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 20, 3:55 AM SST, 5 hours before

AREA SYNOPTIC DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU
1 AM GUAM LST TUE AUG 21 2001

WESTERN NORTH PACIFIC BETWEEN EQUATOR AND 25N FROM 130E TO 180.

TYPHOON PABUK AND ALL WEATHER ASSOCIATED WITH IT HAVE MOVED NORTH
OF THE DISCUSSION AREA. SEE THE LATEST WARNINGS FROM THE JOINT
TYPHOON WARNING CENTER FOR INFORMATION REGARDING TYPHOON PABUK.

LOW-LEVEL CONVERGENCE...ALONG A SHEAR LINE EXTENDING FROM A
MID-LATITUDE LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM..IS PRODUCING SCATTERED SHOWERS
WITHIN 90 MILES OF A LINE FROM 25N152E TO 22N150E TO 21N148E. TO THE
NORTH OF THE WESTERN EDGE OF THE SHEAR LINE..UPPER-LEVEL DIVERGENCE
EAST OF TYPHOON PABUK IS CREATING SCATTERED SHOWERS AND
THUNDERSTORMS BETWEEN 23N AND 25N FROM 145E TO 151E.

THE MONSOON TROUGH IS BECOMING RE-ESTABLISHED ACROSS MICRONESIA AND
EXTENDS FROM NORTH OF LUZON..SOUTHEASTWARD TO A BROAD CIRCULATION
NEAR CHUUK..THEN EASTWARD TO NEAR PINALAP IN POHNPEI STATE.
LOW-LEVEL CONVERGENCE ASSOCIATED WITH THE TROUGH AND THE BROAD
CIRCULATION NEAR CHUUK IS GENERATING NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS BETWEEN THE EQUATOR AND 12N FROM 140E TO 162E. THIS
AREA INCLUDES CHUUK..POHNPEI AND KOSRAE.

LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE MONSOON TROUGH IS
CREATING SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS FROM 8N TO 14N BETWEEN
135E AND 148E.  THIS IS AFFECTING GUAM AND ROTA IN THE SOUTHERN
MARIANAS AND NORTHERN YAP STATE.

Event by event

1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.

Rip Current, Guam

When: August 20, 8:55 AM SST to 9:55 AM SST
Where: Guam County, Tamuning
Injuries: 4 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by: NEWSPAPER

What these are

Rip Current: A narrow, fast current flowing away from the beach that caused a drowning or rescue.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Guam in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Guam, August 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5265904.