A woman died from drowning in a rip current at Panama City’s Bay County Beach on Monday, July 24, 2023. Ruth Corley, a spokesperson at the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said that the incident took place around 10:30 am near Rick Seltzer Park. The 48-year-old victim was a tourist from Georgia and was visiting the beach with her family.
A rip current is a narrow jetlike channel of rapidly moving water that flows with a strong force towards the sea or open ocean, away from the shore. These currents appear at irregular intervals near beaches where the waves break.
Rip currents often cause ocean bathing accidents and are also mistaken for undertow, which generates below the surface and moves in a separate direction from the surface currents.
If a swimmer is caught in a rip current, they should not try to counter it by swimming toward the shore, which is against the current’s motion. This puts them at a risk of drowning due to fatigue. Instead, one should swim parallel to the shore to emerge from the current and then attempt to swim back towards the beach at an angle.
Double red flags were put up across Panama City Beach
After a few weeks of mild conditions with potentially high waves and yellow flags flying across the beaches in Panama City, powerful rip currents returned on Monday, placing swimmers like the Georgia woman in danger.
The victim, whose name has not been disclosed yet, entered the Gulf at the backside of Panama City's Hidden Dunes Condo with her family. All of them were subsequently caught in the rip current. The lifeguards stationed at the park then jumped into the water to rescue them.
Everyone could be brought back to the shore, but the woman, who was rushed to the hospital immediately afterwards, was eventually declared dead.
The flags at Panama City Beach and Bay County Beach were upgraded for strict caution within about 45 minutes of the family's rescue. At around 3:15 pm, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office announced that double red flags were being put up across the beach, indicating that visitors were prohibited from entering the water due to unsafe conditions.
According to the Bay County Sheriff’s Office, deputies who were on duty to rapidly change the yellow flags to double red were repeatedly called to assist distressed swimmers. The BCSO added that numerous water rescues were performed at the beach till late afternoon on Monday.
BSCO spokesperson Ruth Corley said:
“Conditions worsened, (and lifeguards) were all in the water rescuing and pulling people out. There was no one who could go immediately to change the flags to double red, so they called in extra deputies... There was a necessary delay in putting up the double red flags because of the number of people who were in distress."
Mobile phone alerts were also sent to the people in the beach area to warn them about the possible danger and the closure of the beach.
The sheriff’s office also mentioned that those entering the waters even when the double red flags were posted, would be subjected to arrest and a $500 fine, as careless action could also put well-intentioned bystanders' and first responders’ lives in danger.
The drowning of the Georgia woman marks the ninth case of death from rip currents since June 15 this year. Six of these drownings occurred off Panama City Beach's coast.
Usually, Bay County and Panama City Beach never fly green flags as officials believe that beachgoers must be cautious whenever they enter the Gulf. Rip currents can be present in the water at any moment, even during calmer surf conditions and clear skies.
Rip currents can move faster than Olympic swimmers
Rip currents are prevalent along the Gulf, East, and West coasts of the United States, and the shorelines of the Great Lakes of North America. They can move at a velocity of 1 meter per second, which is 3.3 feet. Sometimes, they also move at a faster pace than an Olympic swimmer.
Tens of thousands of people caught in rip currents are rescued by lifeguards in the United States every year. About 100 people die from rip currents annually.
