Beachgoers should be extra cautious as rip currents persist

The body of 29-year-old Michael Angelo Rosario Alvarez was found floating 150 feet from the Holmes Beach shoreline. Tim Vorsheck, 58, was rescued from drowning on a red flag day on Longboat Key, dying just a few days later.

At least three people have drowned along area beaches since May, and the majority of marine rescues off Manatee County’s coast in the past month were related to rip currents. Manatee County Emergency Medical Services responded to 13 drowning calls on Anna Maria Island beaches since May. As summer persists and the Fourth of July holiday nears, with the likely surge in beachgoers, the county is hoping residents and visitors are extra cautious.

“With the holiday coming up, people need to swim safe and be aware,” said Sherilyn Burris, the county’s chief of emergency management. “Always, always, always swim near a lifeguard.”

Even strong swimmers aren’t immune to the powerful pull of a current, she said.

Several factors contribute the ripening of a rip current: the topography of shoreline or if there’s a sandbar nearby, the passing of a recent tropical storm or any wave action. While there’s typically more wave action in cooler weather and therefore more rip currents, Paxton said more people are in the water during summer. But the waves don’t have to be monstrous for a rip current to form.

“Waves bring water up onto the beach and then that water — if the beach is shaped in such a way — it collects then funnels out through a narrow area,” said Charlie Paxton, science and operations officer with the National Weather Service in Tampa.

That stream of water pushes away from the shore; sometimes suddenly, other times subtly. Before you know it, you might find it harder to swim back to shore, or you may swim and not move at all. Panic sets in. You tire out.

If you find yourself in a rip current, stay calm and swim parallel to the shore and out of the current before heading toward shore.

A rip current can be seen from the shore if there’s a portion of a wave that doesn’t break. That area will look darker than the surrounding water, as sand and seaweed are being disturbed from the bottom and start floating away. A patch of sea foam in that same area could indicate a rip current, too.

Paxton is an avid surfer and has saved his fair share of people from rip currents, but he said there are many cases in which the rescuer becomes a victim.

“They don’t realize how petrified people can be and how they just want to grab onto somebody,” he said. “The best thing for a potential rescuer to do is to grab something that floats.”

Whether it’s a foam noodle, a cooler or a surfboard, Paxton said potential rescuers should prepare like a lifeguard would.

Another suggestion is to stay where lifeguards are posted. Seven lifeguard stands cover Coquina Beach and one is stationed at Manatee Beach, but two 3-mile swaths of Gulf of Mexico shoreline are unprotected.

“The ocean is not a swimming pool. The Gulf of Mexico is not a swimming pool,” Paxton said. “When there’s wave action, it’s a whole different story.”

This story was originally published June 28, 2017 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Beachgoers should be extra cautious as rip currents persist."