A family's first outing to Montara State Beach turned with terrifying suddenness into a frantic and ultimately futile struggle to save a mother and her 5-year-old daughter from being swept out to sea and drowned. Romila Higgins, 41, and her daughter, Indali Higgins, both of Walnut Creek, were knocked down by waves and pulled from the shoreline of the beach, eight miles north of Half Moon Bay, at 4:20 p.m. Monday. Rescuers came agonizingly close to saving both, only to have the surf pull them away.
