As you can see in these dramatic pictures, Tim Shields is a professional photographer from Vancouver, British Columbia, who happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Shields and his daughter were taking a walk recently along the waterfront in the little city of White Rock, about 30 miles south of Vancouver, when a sudden storm blew in, destroying about a dozen boats and cutting the pier they were on in two. The situation was so bad that a Canadian Armed Forces helicopter had to rescue a man stranded on the outer end of the pier.
Shields wrote that at first the storm didn’t seem unusual, with waves just crashing against the shore. He and his daughter walked out on a pier to get a better view of the harbor, where a stone breakwater was built to protect about two dozen moored boats. The pier seemed safe enough; it had been there for 100 years.
But the wind and waves picked up suddenly, and a dock with 12 sailboats broke loose from the end of the pier. At first, this mass of boats and dock started blowing toward the land, but then it changed direction and headed for the pier, hitting it with a tangle of hulls, masts and cables.
The pier started pitching and heaving. Shields, his daughter and three other people ran for safety on land just before the pier broke in two. One man was stranded at the outer end of the pier; he was eventually rescued by the helicopter. All but one of the 12 boats sank next to the pier.
Shields said that after seeing his pictures The Weather Channel sent a crew to White Rock to create a segment about the event. See his pictures and video here:
https://www.diyphotography.net/how-a-photo-walk-almost-turned-deadly/
