Ocean City, Maryland, beach lifeguards put the labor into Labor Day weekend, making 380 ocean rescues of swimmers over the course of Saturday and Sunday.
Storm remnants strengthened rip currents near the city’s 10-mile span of beach, taking swimmers hundreds of yards out to sea.
Whereas city beach lifeguards have enough staff to operate 90 lifeguard stands during the summer, they have the manpower to staff only 33 stands once August ends and school and college resume. With stands spread farther apart, lifeguards are less able to leave their perches to warn swimmers about the currents before they enter the ocean, and instead are left to act when incidents occur.
“That’s what ended up happening. We ended up making a lot of rescues that during the rest of the summer we wouldn’t even need to make,” Ocean City Beach Patrol Capt. Butch Arbin told Fox News.Something to keep in mind for swimmers is that ocean swimming is not like pool swimming. “They’re not familiar with the ocean, and they just think it’s like being in their backyard pool. The only difference is: In your backyard pool, there are no currents that can take you from the shallow end to the deep end, and unfortunately in the ocean there are,” Capt. Arbin explained.
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