Friday, June 1, 2007

Rip Currents

Rip currents are taking the lives of swimmers at Florida's beaches. On May 27, the Palm Beach Post reported the drowning of two men on two beaches. One of these men, Brian Wynne of Stone Mountain Ga., died trying to save his 7-year-old son. The boy did survive. The Palm Beach Post also reported another rip current related death which occurred on May 16 at 1 a.m. This time it was an Arizona tourist.
According to the National Weather Service, this is how rip currents are form, "As waves travel from deep to shallow water, they will break near the shoreline. When waves break strongly in some locations and weakly in others, this can cause circulation cells which are seen as rip currents: narrow, fast-moving belts of water traveling offshore."
Rip currents are usually only about 10-15 feet wide, if you ever get caught in one there are a few things to remember.
  • Stay calm
  • Do NOT swim against the current. These currents are very strong and sometimes move faster than most people can run on land, so swimming against it is almost useless.
  • Swim horizontal with the shore. (Since these currents are only about 10 feet long, and you may very well be in the middle of it, by swimming horizontal with the shore you will not have too far to go till you get out of the current.

A good Web page to look at for information is http://www.ripcurrents.noaa.gov/overview.shtml. This page is very good because it gives

  • diagrams of rip currents,
  • explains what they are and how they are formed,
  • gives tips on how to avoid being a victim of them
  • explains how to get out of the currents.

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