Lifeguards stationed at Clearwater Beach have pulled 35 swimmers from the water over the last three weeks, an abnormally high number.
Patrick Brafford, the beach lifeguard manager for Clearwater Fire Rescue, said the highest number of rescues occurred Monday, when 12 people were pulled back to shore. A dayslong streak of rip currents, swift channels of water flowing out to sea, was the culprit, he added.
Clearwater lifeguards weren’t alone. In Manatee County, lifeguards rescued 136 people over a three-day stretch last week, the Bradenton Herald reported. Brafford said Clearwater Beach’s number of rescues wasn’t nearly as high because his lifeguards shut down stretches of shoreline that were particularly risky to swimmers.
He starts by telling beachgoers to avoid areas where rip currents have spurred rescues that day. If no one seems to be listening, Brafford gives the order to keep people out of the water.
After a streak of hurricanes and cold fronts, the sea floor “has changed tremendously in the last couple years,” Brafford said. It’s made the waters near Pier 60 more prone to rip currents when conditions are right.
A combination of onshore winds and a king tide that peaked Sunday caused waters to swell nearly 3 feet above sea level. When those tides began to recede, they created a fast current about 80 feet from shore that dragged swimmers seaward, Brafford said.
“That’s when we started having a majority of rescues back to back to back,” he said.
Luckily, visibility was high within clear waters, and lifeguards could easily pick out swimmers struggling against dangerous currents.
The National Weather Service’s Tampa Bay office issued a rip current alert from 8 a.m. June 18 until the next morning. Federal meteorologists again warned beachgoers with an alert Sunday when the new moon brought tides about half a foot above normal, said Stephen Shively, a meteorologist with the weather service’s office in Ruskin.
The agency limits its alerts to high, widespread risk of rip currents, he said.
“Unfortunately, most days there’s always that low to moderate risk,” Shively said. “It’s hard for us because if we over-warn, people stop listening, and if we under-warn, it could be deadly.”
Brafford said it was “very fortunate” no one drowned. Swimmers are most at danger when they get in the water far from lifeguards or after lifeguards have left for the day, he added.
“If it was after hours, it would have been a real mess out here,” he said. “That’s a perfect example of the absolute necessity to have lifeguards on these beaches.”
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