Photo By Mary Miller Dennis | Tanner Jernigan is a coastal engineer at ERDC’s Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory....... read more read more
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TYBEE ISLAND, Georgia – Tanner Jernigan has spent much of his life around the water – hunting, fishing and even competitive swimming. In March, the former high school state champion swimmer turned engineer was supporting an ongoing research project on Tybee Island, Georgia, when he leaned into all that experience to save the lives of three children.
Jernigan, a coastal research engineer with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), works at the ERDC Field Research Facility, part of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory.
He was assisting with a long-term monitoring project on the island, where researchers are studying the impact large wakes created by passing cargo ships have on the coastline and the threat they pose to beachgoers.
“We were there for these big ships that come in,” Jernigan said of the ships entering and exiting the nearby Port of Savannah. “It was really interesting talking to the people of Tybee Island who have lived there because they’ve seen this happen so many times.”
What they have seen are what locals called “mini tsunamis” that are created from the speed and draft of the cargo ships, as water near the beach is drawn out and then rushes back in.
“The locals told a story of some elderly ladies who were just sitting in some beach chairs,” he said. “They didn’t recognize what was happening, and the next thing you know, their chairs were going everywhere, they were sucked out, coolers were flipped over and they’re getting tumbled in the sand and surf, because it is really unsuspecting.”
That is where ERDC has come on board, joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District, the Town of Tybee Island, and others, to document this occurrence and better understand how the wave’s characteristics are tied to the size and speed of passing ships. The team hopes to provide critical data that can one day be used in an engineered solution to minimize their impact.
On March 28, engineering, science and real-world impacts collided, resulting in Jernigan employing skills long used for recreation and competition.
Taking advantage of some expected downtime between the arrival of scheduled vessels, Jernigan and the team had just begun removing sensors from the water to replace batteries and check gear before redeploying the sensors in the surf.
When they had nearly completed the maintenance, team members noticed the approach of a ship that was not “on the schedule,” Jernigan said. As they rushed to get the equipment back in place, the ship passed their location, but its impact was only beginning.
In addition to the sensors, Jernigan had quickly launched a drone to capture the arriving waves, providing another data point in the team’s research efforts.
“You could see the waves coming in, and I look out and see three kids in the shallow water,” he said, adding that he talked to someone whom he thought was the children’s mother about the potential threat and the need to get out of the water. “They probably thought since it was shallow water, that it wasn’t much of a threat.”
Moments later, as the water was pulled out and then began to rush back in, Jernigan saw a look of fear flash across her face.
“She starts walking out toward the kids, telling them to come back in and then, next thing you know, the wave hits and at one point she’s probably waist deep in water, with all of this current coming through,” he said. “She’s stumbling around and then she turns around and looks at me, and I’m like ‘oh, no.’”
Jernigan rapidly handed off the drone controls and raced into the surf.
“I’m not sure their exact ages, but they were really small kids,” he said. “I see one of them, the youngest, grasping on to the sand, just as his head went below water. I grabbed him first and start walking him in. I then make my way to the other two and help walk them back.”
After everyone caught their breath, Jernigan talked with them about what had happened, what had created the surprise waves and why he and others were there.
As a coastal engineer, it was shocking to see a real-life event that proved the need for team’s research.
“I had never seen anything like that. The water literally recedes to dry sand and then it’s just a big up rush of current energy,” he said. “And then it goes back and forth.”
For Jernigan, the day’s events provided a clear intersection of several points of his life – engineering, science and the water. As a high school senior, he had faced a decision point between attending the University of North Carolina at Wilmington on a path to coastal engineering or joining the U.S. Coast Guard to become a rescue swimmer.
“That moment in time, when I was running, running to the kids, was definitely a little surreal,” he said. “Some instinct kicked in, but that’s why I was there. That’s why we were there.”
| Date Taken: | 08.01.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.07.2025 09:38 |
| Story ID: | 544529 |
| Location: | TYBEE ISLAND, GEORGIA, US |
| Web Views: | 29 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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