PANAMA CITY BEACH − The Beach is in the midst of what was its most deadly period last year.
From June to July of 2023, six beachgoers drowned while swimming in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Panama City Beach. There also were three other drownings off unincorporated Bay County beaches during the same time. As of Friday, the city had logged one beach drowning in 2024. It occurred in March behind Ocean Villa condominium.
With tourist season now in full swing, Daryl Paul, beach safety director for Panama City Beach Fire Rescue, said his lifeguards are tirelessly working to prevent a similar outbreak of drownings this year.
“The lifeguards are down on the shoreline everyday,” Paul said “They see the beach patron attendance numbers climbing, and the lifeguards have trained hard. … We did a lot of work over the offseason in revamping our policies, our guidelines, our procedures, and we have found several ways to maximize the lifeguards’ time on the shoreline.”
He said that Beach lifeguards, as of June 7, had performed 20 rescues, more than 100 public assists and about 51,000 preventative actions.
Rescues are when swimmers on the verge of drowning are pulled form the water. Public assists are when lifeguards enter the water to prevent swimmers from needing to be rescued. Preventative actions are when lifeguards prevent someone from needing assistance.
Common flag colors used in beach flag warning systems include a green flag for low hazard conditions, a yellow flag for medium hazard conditions, one red flag for high hazard conditions and two red flags for very dangerous conditions.
Panama City Beach and Bay County, however, never fly green flags since officials say beachgoers should always be cautious anytime they enter the Gulf. It also is illegal in PCB and Bay County to swim in double-red-flag conditions under penalty of a $500 fine.
Of the nine local beach drownings last year, two occurred under single red flags, while the other seven happened with double red flags overhead during very rough surf conditions. The one drowning from this year also occurred under a single red flag.
All of the victims were tourists who died after being caught in rip currents.
Rip currents are fast-moving currents created by channels in sandbars. The channels run perpendicular to the shoreline, causing water to funnel faster out into deeper waters. Rip currents can vary in strength, depending on how developed the channels are. They can sometimes be identified from shore where there is a gap in the wave break — areas where the white caps of the breaks are less noticeable.
Rips can exist when there are larger waves, as well as when the Gulf appears calm from the shore. Because of this, local beach flags do not represent how large the waves are, but the strength of rip currents at that time.
According to beach safety officials, the best thing swimmers can do if they’re caught in a rip current is swim parallel to shore, meaning toward the left or right of where they are in distress. If they do this, they can break free from the current, often landing on a sandbar where they can stand. If they still cannot stand, they will at least be in calmer water where it will be easier to make it back to shore.
Beach safety: Panama City Beach reminds beachgoers deadly rip currents can exist even under calm surf
Paul noted two of the most important things beachgoers can do to prevent a water emergency is follow the beach flag warning system, and swim under the supervision of lifeguards. In Panama City Beach, lifeguards are stationed at the Russell-Fields Pier, and in Bay County, lifeguards are stationed at the M.B Miller Pier. There also are roving lifeguards that cover other portions of the coast.
To sign up for daily text alerts on local beach flag conditions, text “PCBFLAGS” to 888777.
“Visitors and citizens have to heed the warnings of lifeguards,” Paul said. “We don’t fly our flags based off of wave height. We fly them off of the hazard that is present, which is rip currents.”
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: In 2023, this was the most deadly time for Bay County beachgoers
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