by Amy Painter
As a crowd gathered on the beach, all eyes focused on a helicopter positioned some 50 yards from shore. The aircraft whisked the surface of the water as it hovered above a swimmer in distress. Suddenly, the helicopter’s side door opened and two men leaped from the aircraft into the churning waves. The men, experienced lifeguards with the Dewey Beach Patrol (DBP), swam toward a victim in the water. Meanwhile, on the shore, the drama was no less intense. As one lifeguard signaled the guards in the water, directing them around a hazardous rip current, another communicated with the helicopter pilot using a hand-held radio. Minutes later, the helicopter delivered the victim safely to shore and the rescue team celebrated its victory.

From the cockpit of the Delaware State Police rescue helicopter, coastal processes specialist Dr. Wendy Carey filmed this demonstration exercise on July 28th. The “mock rescue” was part of a beach safety effort at Dewey Beach, which included a variety of rescue exercises and scientific demonstrations. Carey, a scientist with the University of Delaware Sea Grant Program, is a key member of a new task force created to conduct and share science that will lead to improvements in rip current prediction, monitoring, reporting and education.

The task force is a multiagency collaboration involving NOAA’s National Sea Grant College Program, the National Weather Service (NWS) and the U.S. Lifesaving Association (USLA). The NOAA-USLA partnership seeks to leverage the expertise and resources of each organization to address the dangers of rip currents; develop a unified and consistent public education message and campaign; and, increase the dialogue among local beach patrols, coastal NWS forecast offices and Sea Grant Universities. The July demonstration event brought together NOAA Sea Grant scientists, meteorologists from the NWS Marine and Coastal Weather Services Branch, the U.S. Coast Guard, the DBP, the Delaware State Police Aviation Division and others.

As Carey’s camera continued to roll, lifeguards dispersed red food coloring into the surf zone to highlight swirling rip currents. The camera captured the red dye as it was swept seaward in a rip current, illustrating just how turbid and swift the flows can be. “It’s thrilling to get footage of the rips,” said Carey. “Exercises like this allow us to learn a great deal about surf dynamics.”

Carey is studying rip currents to better understand the forces that drive development of rip currents along the Delaware coast. Her videotape will be used in the future as a teaching tool for rescue personnel and as part of an educational public service announcement. To collect additional rip current and wave information, Carey is working with lifeguards throughout Delaware. The data on waves and coastal processes are entered into a database that will enable researchers to better predict the dangerous currents. Carey is also working very closely with meteorologists from the Mount Holly (NJ) Weather Forecast Office, which began a Surf Zone Forecast for the Delaware and New Jersey shoreline several months ago. Thirteen coastal National Weather Service Forecast Offices initiated Surf Zone Forecasts this summer. The forecasts include a Rip Current Outlook—standardized, qualitative rip current information that is available to the public. Feedback received in active dialogues between meteorologists and local lifesavers/beach patrols will enhance the Outlook forecasts.

“ This partnership,” said Tim Schott, a meteorologist with the NWS and a catalyst in the formation of the task force, “is a national model in that it addresses a major public safety issue at the federal, state and local levels, and translates research into information that will save lives. The NOAA-USLA Partnership,” he continued, “is publicly recognizing the ongoing work of each partner. Instead of working independently, we are working together to put out a unified, consistent message nationally.”

Rip currents account for 80 percent of all surf zone drownings and fatalities and are the number one cause of drownings on ocean beaches, according to the USLA. According to DBP Captain Todd Fritchman, his crew made 126 rescues this summer—an unusually “light season,” he noted, in part because rainy periods this summer have lowered beach attendance. Fritchman is concerned about swimmers over the Labor Day holiday and in early September. “Lots of people come to the beach for one last summer weekend. What they don’t realize,” according to Fritchman, “is that rip currents can be very strong this time of year and lifeguard staffs are stressed with so many patrols heading back to school.” He cautioned vacationers to be especially vigilant when swimming over the holiday weekend and into the early fall. Over the last several years, a number of rip current drownings have occurred along the East Coast in September in response to dangerous currents generated by tropical cyclones well off the coast.

Local and state park beach patrols play an integral role in the development of the rip current forecast models, providing rescue data and real-time observations of ocean conditions. “Predictive models for rip currents may be based on rip current rescue data as well as physical parameters such as wind speed and direction, wave/swell height and period, and the stage of the tide,” Carey explained. “The models also will incorporate research on surf zone physics and rip current development conducted by the University of Delaware Center for Applied Coastal Research, Stevens Institute of Technology, and other research institutes.”
So just what are rip currents? Rip currents are coastal hazards that pose daily threats to life and safety, causing over 100 drownings every year. “They occur along all surf beaches, including the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts as well as the Great Lakes,” according to USLA member, Dr. Peter Hartsock. A current behaves like a powerful river of water running from the shore out to sea. The rips can range in width from 50 feet to over 50 yards and may flow just past the breaking surf or hundreds of yards offshore. Although rip currents may occur at anytime, they are most common during storms and high surf conditions. Swimmers caught in a current are instructed to swim parallel to the shoreline until the current relaxes, or to let the current carry them until its force diminishes at which point a swimmer can swim back to shore.

Through local partnerships, NOAA’s NWS and Sea Grant have already established rip current education and awareness programs and public information campaigns in many coastal states. Lessons learned through the success of these projects, especially those in Florida and North Carolina, have been used as springboards for new Sea Grant outreach efforts in many locations, including Delaware, and for the national partnership.

In partnership with the NWS and local municipalities, North Carolina Sea Grant has placed hundreds of rip current informational signs along the North Carolina coast. Delaware Sea Grant has worked with several coastal towns and the State of Delaware DNREC to place interpretive signs about rip current safety on boardwalks, beaches and lifeguard stands. In New Jersey, Sea Grant coastal engineers are working with NWS personnel to develop nearshore wave and circulation models that may improve rip current prediction capabilities.
Next steps: The task force is developing a NOAA-level rip current brochure and poster with the USLA. The participants are planning a May 2004 national-level press conference, in conjunction with National Beach Safety Week, to publicly acknowledge the partnership and to advertise the first-ever NOAA-level rip current brochure and poster. The task force will encourage increased dialogue among the nation’s weather forecasting offices, state Sea Grant Universities and lifesavers, and will lead a unified public education campaign to inform the public of the rip current threat and of sources for information.

To learn about daily rip current threats, the National Weather Service website is an excellent resource. North Carolina Sea Grant, Michigan Sea Grant (Great Lakes) and the USLA also offer information on how to identify currents, and what to do if caught in a rip.

National Weather Service
North Carolina Sea Grant
Michigan Sea Grant
USLA

Top | Story archive

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Ben Sherman, 202/662-7095, E-Mail: sherman@nasw.org