6 people drown near Florida beach in just 4 days in dangerous rip currents
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/Gray News) - Six drowning deaths have been reported near one Florida beach in less than a week.
Panama City Beach officials say they do their best to warn visitors of the dangerous rip currents in the Gulf of Mexico but staffing enough lifeguards is an issue.
“The last thing we want you to do is come on vacation and not take all your family members home with you,” Panama City Beach Fire Chief Ray Morgan said.
This comes after six people have recently died while swimming along Bay County beaches.
Panama City Beach safety director Daryl Paul says two of those drownings happened near Sharky’s Beachfront Restaurant.
“Same location, same rip current,” Paul said.
According to officials, lifeguards were patrolling the area when tragedy struck but staffing can be spread a little thin with such a large area to cover.
“A lifeguard is never too far from you but seeing the number of people that we have and the large beach that we cover … we just can’t have a lifeguard at every few feet, it’s just not possible,” Morgan said.
Currently, the city has 16 lifeguards who patrol 9.6 miles of beach.
“We have 16 lifeguards and that includes me. Nine of those are permanent year-round lifeguards and then we have seasonals to help bolster our staffing a little bit,” Paul said.
Panama City Beach Mayor Stuart Tettemer said the need for more lifeguards is there.
“Absolutely we need more lifeguards. We’ve been running our folks ragged through these tough weekends,” he said.
According to city reports, from June 16 to 22 beach patrol advised over 38,000 people about the rip currents, flag system and general beach safety.
The team made six rescues, 15 public assists, and took almost 21,000 preventative actions - where a lifeguard initiated an action to prevent a public assist.
Most of the drowning victims were in their late teens and 20s while one victim was in her 60s.
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