Ranger’s panic doomed
rescue, lawsuit claimsThe husband of a New York woman who drowned in the O'heo Pools in Haleakala National Park last May has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government, alleging that a rescue attempt failed because of a national park ranger's emotional breakdown. Star-Bulletin staff and news services
The suit, filed this week in U.S. District Court, said Xina Wendt, 41, was wading in one of the pools on May 4, 2002, when she was washed into the ocean by a rush of water and drowned during botched rescue attempts by national park rangers.
The lawsuit alleges that a park ranger burst into tears and panicked, then threw both ends of a rescue rope into the water.
The suit also claims park rangers did not warn Wendt and her husband about the dangers of wading in the pools or of the risks of flash flooding.
The National Park Service conducted an investigation into the complaint, and on April 9 found no wrongdoing by the park rangers.
O'heo Pools is in the same gulch where a Kentucky man and his 8-year-old daughter were washed out to sea during a flash flood on April 10.
Their bodies were not found.
National Park Service