Terrifying moment dozens of swimmers are left trapped on platform in Texas lake as alligator lurks nearby
- Shared over the weekend, the series of clips shows at least 18 people standing on a floating platform in a north Houston lake as the gator swims in waters below
- The videos were recorded by concerned Houstoner Alvaro Ruiz, who used his phone camera to chronicle the emerging crisis – and the lakegoers’ later rescue
- Now in the past, the event served not only as a close call to those present, but a reminder about the dangers of the scaly beasts – which are abundant in the area
Footage shows the moment dozens of swimmers became trapped on a raised platform in a Texas lake after spotting an alligator circling nearby.
Shared over the weekend, the series of clips shows at least 18 people standing on the floating platform in Huntsville State Park – a heavily wooded, 2,000 acre attraction just north of Houston – as the unwanted visitor lurks in the waters below.
The videos were recorded by concerned Houstoner Alvaro Ruiz, who used his phone to chronicle the swimmer’s eventual rescue.
In captions penned in Spanish, Ruiz explained how the swimmers came to be stranded on the floating island – while showing video of what appears to be a crowd of well over 100 onlookers the gator attracted.
Another showed the troublemaking gator up close – seemingly waiting for a chance to snag one of the wary revelers – while a later clips showed park rangers using a boat to ferry them to shore.
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Footage shows the moment several swimmers became trapped on a raised platform in a Texas lake after spotting an alligator nearby over the weekend – before eventually being rescued
The videos were recorded by concerned Houstoner Alvaro Ruiz, who used his phone camera to chronicle the emerging crisis – created by the unwanted scaly visitor
The event served as a healthy reminder about the dangers of the reptilian quadrupeds, who are known to be more aggressive in months spanning from April to June – their mating season.
But commenters familiar with the Alligator-overrun area in Northeast Texas were quick to point out that swimmers are regularly cautioned about their presence in the murky waters – with this group apparently flouting those warnings.
‘Sorry humans but the gators are in their natural habitat,’ one commenter remarked of Ruiz’s initial video, which shows onlookers gathering and screaming advice at those stranded – all while the gator remains completely shrouded and unseen.
In another, similar clip posted minutes later, the alligator is seen briefly surfacing as the swimmers look on helplessly – as is the case with the countless parkgoers crowded around the action from a safe distance.
‘Those people way too calm,’ one user commented of members of the aforementioned group, many of whom appear to be laughing in the now-viral footage.
‘I would’ve been watching from my house,’ the commenter – one of more than 3million users to view the clip – quickly added.
Another claimed the park sports signage surrounding the lake advising against swimming because of an abundance of alligators – warnings that were either ignored or went unnoticed in the buildup to the scare, which happened Sunday.
In another, similar clip posted minutes later, the alligator is seen briefly surfacing as the swimmers looked on helplessly – as was the case with the countless parkgoers crowded around the action, albeit from a safe distance
In captions penned in Spanish, Ruiz explained how the swimmers came to be stranded on the floating island – while showing video of what appears to be a crowd of well over 100 onlookers the incident attracted
Later clips showed park rangers using a boat to ferry the swimmers – some of whom were children – safely to shore. The sighting comes in the midst of the alligator mating season, during which they are known to be more aggressive
The mass of onlookers were seen laughing and joking during the Sunday ordeal, while some shouted instructions and advice to those stranded
‘Us humans can’t follow the rules !!’ they wrote. ‘There’s signs of alligators all over that lake.’
That said, while gators are an expected sight in the Lone Star State – where there are an estimated half-a-million alone – they are far less common than their counterparts in swamp-laden locales like Florida and Louisiana, where populations are well into the millions.
Consequently, Texans are often left more surprised by an alligator in their home state – and may often rebuff warnings alerting to their presence.
Another phenomenon perhaps paving the way for a false sense of security is the lack of violent alligator attacks in Texas, with only one taking place in recent history, according to trapper Tim Deramus of Bayou City Gator Savers.
That attack, the trapper explained, took place during the month of September – after a kayaker unexpectedly jumped into water where a mother gator had laid its eggs.
‘It was around September 15th when the babies are hatching out of their nest and the kayaker ended up jumping out into the water,’ he told Fox Weather last year of the rare-post mating attack, which happened in 2020.
‘He didn’t know the nest was on the bank where he jumped out to swim. So the mother, female alligator grabbed him.
‘The alligator, bit his hand and arm and pulled him underwater – he got away and he went swimming to the bank. And then the alligator actually grabbed him again on the shoulder and he was able to get away again.
‘I believe he’s okay,’ he told the station.
Commenters familiar with the Alligator-overrun area in Northeast Texas were quick to point out that swimmers are regularly caution about their presence in the murky waters – with this group apparently flouting those warnings
‘Those people way too calm,’ one user commented of members of the aforementioned group, many of whom appear to be laughing in the now-viral footage.
The scare happened in heavily wooded Huntsville State Park – a sprawling, 2,000 acre attraction just north of Houston (seen here). It is home to hundreds of gators
https://youtube.com/watch?v=lJxXXdZB6Iw%3Frel%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26hl%3Den-US
People like Deramus have been tasked with keeping a clamp on the gator population in the Southern state, after being taught how to wrangle in a one-day seminar nearly a decade ago.
Since then, he has had his fair share of run-ins with the beasts, which typically do not attack humans unless threatened – with the lion’s share of these incidents taking place this time of year.
‘It’s the beginning of the mating season,’ Deramus recently explained of how he gets at least seven times amount of calls during the gators’ mating months. ‘So more of the males are just running crazy looking for females.’
Come July, once mating season is over, he said he usually gets five calls from Texans complaining of a gator a week – instead of that same amount in a day.
A seasoned trapper, he advises all citizens and professionals when confronted with a gator, instead of trying to remove it themselves.
This course of action is what eventually saved the Huntsville Park swimmers from their unexpected confinement – with videos posted by Ruiz showing a park ranger in a boat rescuing the trapped swimmers, bringing them to shore in waves.
As of Tuesday, it is unclear how long they were stranded.
However, according to an accompanying caption provided by the TikTok creator, none were injured as a result of the incident.
‘Everyone is out of danger thanks to the rangers,’ he wrote.
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