Another person has drowned after swimming off the coast of Bay County, making nine local beach drownings so far this year.
According to Ruth Corley, spokesperson for the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, the incident occurred about 10:30 a.m. Monday near Rick Seltzer Park. The victim was a 48-year-old Georgia woman who was visiting the area with her family.
She and her family entered the Gulf behind Hidden Dunes Condos, which sits next to the park. They then became caught in a rip current, prompting lifeguards stationed at Rick Seltzer to jump in the water to help them. All were pulled to shore at the park, but the woman was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Corley said the incident was among a string of rescues that occurred Monday morning and led officials to upgrade beach safety flags from red to double red. It took about 45 minutes from the time the family was pulled out of the water for all flags in the area to be changed.
“Conditions worsened, (and lifeguards) were all in the water rescuing and pulling people out,” Corley said. “There was no one who could go immediately to change the flags to double red, so they called in extra deputies. … There was a necessary delay in putting up the double red flags because of the number of people who were in distress.”
Monday’s death marks Bay County’s ninth beach drowning so far this year. All have occurred since June. Of the drownings, six happened off the coast of Panama City Beach, and three happened on unincorporated Bay County beaches outside the city limits.
Monday’s death also is the second drowning this year to occur under single red flags. The other seven happened with double red flags overhead, meaning the water was closed at those times under penalty of $500 fines. The victims of every local drowning this year were tourists who died after being caught in a rip current.
Rip currents are fast moving currents created by deep channels in surrounding sandbars. These channels often run perpendicular to the shoreline and cause water to funnel faster out into deeper waters of the Gulf. Rips can vary in strength, depending on how developed the channels are, and they can sometimes be identified from shore where there is a gap in the wave break − areas where the white caps of the breaks are less noticeable.
The best thing a beachgoer caught in a rip can do is swim parallel to shore, meaning toward the left or right of where they are in distress. If they do this, they will be able to break free from the current, often landing on a sandbar where they can stand. If they still cannot stand, they will at least be in calmer water where it will be easier to make it back to shore.
Common flag colors used in beach flag warning systems include a green flag for low hazard conditions, a yellow flag for medium hazard conditions, one red flag for high hazard conditions and two red flags for very dangerous conditions.
Panama City Beach and Bay County, however, never fly green flags because officials say beachgoers should always be cautious anytime they enter the Gulf. Rip currents can always be present, even under clear skies and calmer surf conditions.
“It’s possible to be in the water even on yellow flag (days) and have a rip current spring up,” Corley said. “Every graphic that I have says to always use caution when swimming in Gulf waters because it can happen no matter what the flag says.”
Source : NEWSHERALD
