Locals ‘devastated’shocked’

“I’ve lived here 50 years, I’ve never seen anything like that,” one local told CBS of the beach that currently has no lifeguards on duty. “I’m shocked. I’m absolutely shocked. I had no idea that digging out…something could happen where it could collapse underneath someone just hanging out and playing on the beach.”

Another local offered his own theories about the hole.

Speaking with NBC Miami, local Harry Defina explains that the children were playing in hole previously dug by a man, only about 30 minutes before tragedy struck.

“I was walking by the beach, and I saw a man…digging a really big hole…up to his chest. I looked at him and he looked back, and I walked away, I didn’t think to go over and tell him not to do it,” Defina said. “I’m even upset that someone would imply that those kids dug that hole. They didn’t dig that hole. It was massive and it ended up like 18-feet-by-6-feet.”

Struggling to hold back his tears, Defina shares what he saw when the kids were buried: “I see kids in the hole. I could see the boy a little bit, but all I can see…I’m not going to be able to finish this…all I could see was the top of the girl’s head.”