11 people have died in rip currents in less than two weeks along Gulf Coast

[question everything]

Rip currents have claimed the lives of 11 people within two weeks along the Gulf Coast, amid warnings from officials about the hazardous water conditions, according to preliminary data from the National Weather Service.

The deaths have spanned the Gulf of Mexico between Fort Morgan, Alabama, and Panama City Beach, Florida, the weather service said.

A rip current is “a relatively small-scale surf-zone current,” according to the weather service. It forms as waves disperse across the beach, “causing water to become trapped between the beach and a sandbar or other underwater feature” so, “the water converges into a narrow, river-like channel moving away from the shore at high speed.”

Contrary to popular belief, a rip current won’t pull you under water, but they can pull even the strongest swimmer away from the beach beyond breaking waves, the weather service said. Rip currents often form at breaks in sandbars and close to piers and rock groins.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/11-people-died-rip-currents-190845654.html

[Submariner]

1. This dye tracing of a rip current was on GMA

[question everything]

2. This is scary!

[taxi]

3. That is a good illustration. When caught in a rip tide

work out of it by swimming parallel to the shore. It is puzzling that the public isn't aware of this; we're told not to swim in them but not what to do if caught in one.

[yardwork]

13. It can be difficult to swim sideways with a strong riptide.

I got caught in once when I was a kid. My father had taught me what to do, but even so, it was difficult to swim out of it. Nobody on shore noticed. When I got to land I was exhausted. It happened in minutes.

I think what happens is that people get exhausted. This happens very quickly. And even though the current may not pull down, waves and water can go over one's head.

[taxi]

14. Yup.

I was up to my chin one day at Daytona or Daytona Beach Shores and got caught. At first I tried to dig in but that was useless. I tried to dig in even deeper and the current got stronger, washing the sand out from around my feet. I tried to swim toward shore using different strokes but I kept losing and I kept fighting. I was almost to my last breath when the concept that this wasn't like a swimming pool where the depth from the edge remained constant and finally made my way out. I swear I came this close to drowning that day - way different from the previous time when swimming across a quarry with 60 feet of water an arms reach from shore...

[mnhtnbb]

4. This is why you swim parallel to the shore to get out of the rip current

I got caught in one when I was 16 at Moonlight State Beach in Encinitas, CA. Swimming with a friend, but he'd gotten out of the water. Lifeguard in chair about 20 yards from where our towels were. I was 16, an excellent swimmer, but was getting repeatedly sucked out with waves breaking over my head. Realized my friend didn't recognize I was in trouble and lifeguard couldn't hear me screaming for help. Red Cross water safety training kicked in and I swam parallel to the shore for about 20 yards and was able to then ride a wave in. It was very scary and I was exhausted when I finally got out of the water.

[edisdead]

16. Swim along the beach at an angle back towards it.

if you ever feel like you aren’t swimming back to shore swim at an angle along the beach back towards it. Need to get past the rip current and the waves will help bring you back in eventually.

[Kid Berwyn]

5. Rip Tides also occur along Lake Michigan

Hope more people learn what to do.

[TheRealNorth]

12. Lake Superior as well (and probably all the Great Lakes)

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/08/23/on-lake-superior-rip-currents-prompt-call-for-more-lifeguards-in-duluth

[druidity33]

6. Bullshit they can't pull you under...

i was 7 when it happened to me. I was knee deep at a LI beach... the tide came in, and all of a sudden the sand was sucked out from under me and i was being dragged on my but out into the open water. I could have easily died. I tumbled under water for a half minute and then managed to grab onto some submerged wood on the floor, planted my foot against it until the surge passed. I crawled to the beach and puked up sand and water. NOBODY noticed. The whole thing took maybe 2 minutes total. To this day i don't swim at ocean beaches. I'm in my fifties...

[GPV]

10. Happened to me more than once

[Blue Owl]

11. Yup -- maybe some light wading just to get the feet wet, but no swimming!

Along with rip currents, I'm also not a fan of sharks and jellyfish stings!!!

[edhopper]

7. We have signs like this posted on NY beaches

[MissB]

9. Swim in parallel to the shore instead of towards the shore

Eventually you’ll be out of the rip tide and can then swim back to shore.

[elocs]

15. I can't swim, but my adult daughter could swim like a fish from when she was little.

We lived in Wisconsin by the Mississippi and for some reason when I read about rip currents I told her about them, explained how to escape them a number of times over the years. I have no explanation as to why since they're not likely to be found here.
Now when my daughter was a teen, she was visiting family down in Florida and she went swimming in the ocean.
And yep, she got caught in a rip current. The problem was that she didn't remember what I had taught her about rip currents.
Fortunately her older cousin who was a strong swimmer and knew how to escape a rip current was there and he got her out.
I bet this isn't how you figured this story would go. Well, I tried, but the success was that she survived.