Earlier this year, 22-year-old Nicholas Alvernaz died after his kayak overturned in Wellfleet Harbor and rescue efforts failed. Five months later, Wellfleet town officials have finally broken their silence on the incident.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke to Jack Styler of the Provincetown Independent to learn more.
Gilda Geist Can you please summarize the town of Wellfleet's response—or lack of response—after Nicholas Alvernaz died?
Jack Styler Nicholas Alvernaz died after his kayak overturned in Wellfleet Harbor on March 14. Shortly after that, the Wellfleet Fire Department did release a statement announcing that there was a rescue operation and that unfortunately a kayaker had died in Wellfleet, but did not identify Nicholas as the kayaker and didn't say anything about the rescue operation. We have since reported that less than two weeks after Nicholas Alvernaz died in Wellfleet Harbor, Wellfleet Town Administrator Tom Guerino sent an email to leadership in the town of Wellfleet—including the police chief and the fire chief and the first responders from the harbormaster's office who were on duty that night—reminding them that any outside discussion of that rescue operation needs to be "nonexistent." As we've previously reported, the Wellfleet harbormasters and other emergency responders were plagued with a series of missteps and bad luck that night that ultimately resulted in a failed rescue operation, and it took nearly two hours to locate Nicholas Alvernaz in Wellfleet Harbor. Following that report, Nicholas Alvernaz's father, Tony Alvernaz, appeared in a public meeting in August in Wellfleet where he questioned four members of the select board in public and Town Administrator Guerino about the details of his son's rescue operation, and his questions were met with silence. And then finally, on September 2, Administrator Guerino did finally issue a public apology for how he handled the aftermath of Nicholas Alvernaz's death.
GG What did Guerino say in his apology?
JS So, Guerino said that basically, in trying not to say the wrong thing or trying not to make a painful situation worse, he elected to ultimately say nothing about how Nicholas Alvernaz died. He apologized for that and said that, looking back, he believed that that was an error. His statement did come after the Wellfleet select board met earlier that same day in executive session to discuss letters that the family of Nicholas Alvernaz sent the town that signaled that they may be filing a wrongful death lawsuit.
GG When you say that Guerino had said he didn't want to say "the wrong thing" and that's why he didn't say anything, are we talking about the wrong thing emotionally speaking with Alvernaz's family, or are we talking about the wrong thing legally speaking?
JS Well, I think that's a fair question, Gilda, and I don't know the answer to that. But in his statement, Guerino didn't say much about whether or not there was an ongoing investigation and who was handling that investigation into the emergency response. But he did say that generally there are situations for town governments where they need to be careful about what they say in public—sort of alluding to the fact that this case may have legal implications for the town.
GG As you just mentioned, Guerino's statement didn't really seem to provide many more actual answers for the Alvernaz family. Is that right? What happens next?
JS I think that is fair to say. While Guarino did apologize for not speaking out publicly and did offer his condolences to the Alvernaz family, he did not provide really any details about the status of the investigation into the rescue operation. He had said that things were being reviewed at one point in the statement, but did not give any concrete answers about who was doing the reviewing, whether or not the investigation will have a report that comes out, and the timeline moving forward for whether or not any more answers about emergency response in Wellfleet will be coming out in the future.
