Officials predict that dangerous rip currents will persist on Sunday over portions of the Atlantic and Gulf beaches, where the violent currents have swept at least eight people out to sea since Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service, there is a high risk of life-threatening rip currents on Atlantic Coast beaches, including the Jersey Shore, from Point Pleasant to Cape May. The NWS predicts dangerous rip currents on North Carolina beaches from Frisco to Emerald on Sunday.
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The Gulf Coast, where Tropical Storm Alberto’s remnants are still agitating the water, has also received rip current warnings.
A high-risk warning indicates that the surf zone is unsafe for swimmers of all skill levels, and beachgoers should avoid entering the sea.
Moderate risk warnings for other portions of the Atlantic Coast predict rip currents. Swimmers should stay near lifeguards and follow the advice of local beach patrols and flag warning systems.
“It’s a lovely area, but they have no idea how hazardous it can be. “The ocean is strong and final when it gets ahold of you,” Chief Deputy John Budensiek of the Martin County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office told West Palm Beach ABC affiliate WPBF after a Pennsylvania couple drowned while swimming with their six children on Hutchinson Island off Florida’s east coast.
Lifeguards discovered the corpses of the pair, 51-year-old Brian Warter and 48-year-old Erica Wishard, around 100 to 125 yards (300 to 375 feet) offshore, according to Martin County fire officials.
Warter and Wishard were two of eight people who perished while swimming in stormy waves off the Atlantic and Gulf coasts since Thursday, according to officials.
On Friday, three Alabama men who were visiting a Florida beach perished while swimming in the Gulf off Panama City Beach. The drownings occurred one day after a 19-year-old male drowned in the same region, according to officials.
The U.S. Coast Guard suspended a search Sunday for two boys, ages 16 and 17, who were apparently caught in a rip current at Jacob Riis Park in New York City’s Queensborough and quickly swept out into the Atlantic, according to New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry.
“The teens tried to jump up to kind of slice the wave, but the wave was extremely high, and it went on top of them and sucked them over,” Daughtry said during a press conference.
Meanwhile, the Genesee River, a tributary of Lake Ontario in Caneadea, New York, washed away and drowned a 15-year-old boy’s corpse, according to the New York State Police. Investigators report that the boy was swimming with a companion when the river swept him away.
Various search and rescue teams probed the river on Thursday before discovering the teen’s body.
