Guam, 2003

Rip Current in Guam, October 28, 2003

October 28, 2003 · NWS GUA · 1 event in 1 county or zone

At 1630 Senior Airman Louis Avellanet, 21, was reported missing in the waters off Tarague Beach at Andersen Air Force Base. People who were at the beach saw a person get knocked down and pulled into open water by a wave at the beach.

The toll

Deaths
1
Injuries
0
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.

At 1630 Senior Airman Louis Avellanet, 21, was reported missing in the waters off Tarague Beach at Andersen Air Force Base. People who were at the beach saw a person get knocked down and pulled into open water by a wave at the beach. He was walking the reef at Tarague Beach when the wave hit him. Search and rescue teams looked for him throughout the night and into the next morning. Avellanet was on temporary duty from Travis Air Force Base in California. Coast Guard officials found the body at 0920 on the 29th in the waters off Tarague Beach about a quarter of a mile from where thevictim was reported to have gone over the reef.

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 Oct 28, 3:47 PM SST, 13 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 28, 3:47 PM SST, 13 minutes before
AREA SYNOPTIC DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TIYAN GU
1 PM GUAM LST WED OCT 29 2003

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

TYPHOON PARMA...CENTERED NEAR 24N150E...IS MOVING WEST-NORTHWEST AT
20 MPH WITH MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS OF 110 MPH. HEAVY RAIN AND
THUNDERSTORMS EXTEND OUTWARD 100 MILES FROM THE CENTER. SCATTERED
SHOWERS EXTEND FURTHER OUT TO AN AREA BETWEEN 21N AND 25N FROM 147E
TO 155E. SEE JOINT TYPHOON WARNING CENTER BULLETIN WTPN32 PGTW FOR
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

A LOW PRESSURE AREA CENTERED NEAR 12N133E IS GENERATING SCATTERED
SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS NORTHWEST OF YAP BETWEEN 10N AND
15N FROM 130E TO 137E.

A WEAK MONSOON TROUGH STRETCHES FROM 14N155E EASTWARD TO 8N170E TO
9N180. CONVERGENT MONSOONAL FLOW SOUTHWEST OF THE TROUGH IS
PRODUCING SCATTERED SHOWERS AND ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS MUCH
OF THE FEDERATED STATES OF MICRONESIA BETWEEN THE EQUATOR AND 12N
FROM 140E TO 164E.

Event by event

1 rip current. Local standard time, as filed.

Rip Current, Guam

When
October 28, 4:00 PM SST to 5:00 PM SST
Where
Guam County, Andersen Afb
Deaths
1 direct, 0 indirect
Reported by
NEWSPAPER

The people who died

As the offices recorded each death: direct deaths were caused by the weather itself, indirect ones by something it set in motion.

EventDateAgeSexWhereKind
Rip Current, Guam2003-10-2821MaleIn WaterDirect

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 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Guam, October 2003

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: 5338998.