Dylan Smith Dead: Surfer, Hurricane Sandy Hero Drowns In Puerto Rico
Posted: 12/24/2012 11:29 am EST | Updated: 12/24/2012 12:16 pm EST
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A young surfer-- who previously made headlines when he rescued several people stranded by Hurricane Sandy-- apparently drowned this week off the coast of Puerto Rico. From The AP:
A police statement Sunday has identified the tourist as 23-year-old Dylan Smith, whose body was found floating Sunday morning near his surfboard in waters off Maria's Beach in the western Puerto Rican community of Rincon. The town's beaches attract surfers from across the world.
Smith, you may remember, was on People magazine's "2012 Heroes of the Year" list, for his heroics in Queens during the storm.
According to NBC New York, "The night of the storm, Smith, who is from Belle Harbor, helped rescue six people using a homemade rope bridge and his surfboard as fires spread across the flooded Rockaway Peninsula."
FDNY Chief Michael Light, who knew Smith since he was a baby, told The Daily News, "The same sport -- the sport of surfing -- that he used to save all those people, it's so shocking that he perished that way."
According to the AP, the U.S. Caribbean territory's police are investigating the death.
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