Nearly 200 Rescued Over 2 Days Off Ocean City Beach
OCEAN CITY, Md. (WJZ) -- Dangerous rip currents lead to a very busy couple of days for the Ocean City Beach Patrol, with hundreds of rescues and some people seriously injured.
Rick Ritter with more on the dangers that lurk beneath the surface.
It's known as the silent summer danger. This season, rip currents have a tighter grip than ever on the Eastern Shore.
On Sunday and Monday, Ocean City lifeguards made nearly 200 water rescues alone in the two day span.
Michael Kessler and his family witnessed several on their vacation.
"In all the other years, I think I've seen one rescue. And we saw four in 30 minutes in one weekend," said Kessler.
A frightening ordeal leaving some hospitalized.
"There's a certain point that it just pulled people out. So you're OK here, and then you could see the rip current just kind of come and take people. So once you to that big rip current, they were gone," said Kessler.
The dangers of rip currents extend well beyond Maryland, hitting beaches up and down the East Coast all summer long.
Just weeks ago, GoPro video captured a group of swimmers in Nantucket being swept out to sea, forcing an Ocean City man to jump in and save them.
Captain Butch Arbin with the Ocean City Beach Patrol says they've been stressing the dangers to beachgoers--because even the best of athletes struggle to break through it.
"A fast moving rip current actually can move faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim," said Arbin.
Instead, control your urge to fight it and swim parallel to the beach. Staying calm can mean the difference between life and death.
Ocean City Beach Patrol says most of the rescues happened after life guards left for the day. No one has drowned in Ocean City this summer, compared to three last year.
Rip currents account for 80 percent of annual water rescues.
