Let's discuss lifeguards, not flag warning systems
I've been reading the thread about the flag warning systems. It is obvious to me that the colored flag warnings are not very effective at preventing drownings in the gulf.
What I would prefer to discuss is what IS effective.
Sandee LaMott, the wife of the retired CNN correspondent who drowned at Grayton Beach, happens to work for WebMD. There is a really excellent article on the WebMD web site about rip currents and lifeguards. The entire article is here: http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/66/79889.htm?printing=true
It also contains excellent information on what to do if you or someone else is caught in a rip current.
The article, dated Tuesday, June 17, 2003, says:
About 12 Americans drown every day. Yet on beaches protected by lifeguards, the odds of drowning are one in 16 million, according to the U.S. Lifeguard Association. That's five times safer than on unprotected beaches.
Unfortunately, in these days of cuts in government services, fewer and fewer beaches employ trained lifeguards.
"The one factor that is most tragic about rip-current deaths is they wouldn't happen if there were lifeguards," Wernicki says. (Peter Wernicki, MD, is medical advisor to the U.S. and World Lifesaving Associations.)
"I think a large number of people who go to the beach are from inland. They are not good swimmers; they are not familiar with ocean currents. They don't have a clue what to do in an emergency. I think they are lured onto unprotected beaches. 'Come to our beach, it is clean,' they say. But maybe if they were better informed they would choose to go to beaches with lifeguards."
Sandee LaMotte is angry. She is working to get Florida municipalities to pass "Larry's Law" -- requiring lifeguards on all public beaches.
"The current lack of protection is just callous disregard for human life," she says. "It has to change."
B. Chris Brewster, retired San Diego lifeguard chief and national certification committee chair for the U.S. Lifesaving Association, is widely regarded as an expert on rip currents. He has been working for years to get Florida Gulf coast municipalities to establish lifeguards. Last week, the mayor and fire chief of Destin, Fla., spoke with him about establishing a lifeguard service. Most other northwest Florida communities, he says, haven't been as cooperative.
"It is my personal judgment that these communities are not going to change until forced to do so, shamed to do so -- which would take a lot -- or until they feel economically compelled to do so," Brewster says.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of the individuals named in the story above and have never met any of them. But I think their case is very convincing and as a Walton County property owner, I fully support what Sandee LaMotte wants to accomplish. I hope that others will stand behind her in demanding safer beaches for our tourists in Walton County.
Having lifeguards does not have to cost property owners anything. The tourist development tax (or "bed tax" as it is known) could be used to pass the costs on to the tourist.
I can anticipate the argument that "people won't pay any attention to lifeguards." No, not if the county simply hires them and doesn't give them any authority. But many beach communities make it a violation of the law to disobey a lifeguard, and Walton County could do the same.
We have waited far too long to act on this problem. ABC's 20/20 last night has cast a cloud over Walton County and the county commisioner's interview in that televised news story makes the county appear callous, uninformed, and indifferent to the problem.
Just my 2 cents.
I've been reading the thread about the flag warning systems. It is obvious to me that the colored flag warnings are not very effective at preventing drownings in the gulf.
What I would prefer to discuss is what IS effective.
Sandee LaMott, the wife of the retired CNN correspondent who drowned at Grayton Beach, happens to work for WebMD. There is a really excellent article on the WebMD web site about rip currents and lifeguards. The entire article is here: http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/66/79889.htm?printing=true
It also contains excellent information on what to do if you or someone else is caught in a rip current.
The article, dated Tuesday, June 17, 2003, says:
About 12 Americans drown every day. Yet on beaches protected by lifeguards, the odds of drowning are one in 16 million, according to the U.S. Lifeguard Association. That's five times safer than on unprotected beaches.
Unfortunately, in these days of cuts in government services, fewer and fewer beaches employ trained lifeguards.
"The one factor that is most tragic about rip-current deaths is they wouldn't happen if there were lifeguards," Wernicki says. (Peter Wernicki, MD, is medical advisor to the U.S. and World Lifesaving Associations.)
"I think a large number of people who go to the beach are from inland. They are not good swimmers; they are not familiar with ocean currents. They don't have a clue what to do in an emergency. I think they are lured onto unprotected beaches. 'Come to our beach, it is clean,' they say. But maybe if they were better informed they would choose to go to beaches with lifeguards."
Sandee LaMotte is angry. She is working to get Florida municipalities to pass "Larry's Law" -- requiring lifeguards on all public beaches.
"The current lack of protection is just callous disregard for human life," she says. "It has to change."
B. Chris Brewster, retired San Diego lifeguard chief and national certification committee chair for the U.S. Lifesaving Association, is widely regarded as an expert on rip currents. He has been working for years to get Florida Gulf coast municipalities to establish lifeguards. Last week, the mayor and fire chief of Destin, Fla., spoke with him about establishing a lifeguard service. Most other northwest Florida communities, he says, haven't been as cooperative.
"It is my personal judgment that these communities are not going to change until forced to do so, shamed to do so -- which would take a lot -- or until they feel economically compelled to do so," Brewster says.
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with any of the individuals named in the story above and have never met any of them. But I think their case is very convincing and as a Walton County property owner, I fully support what Sandee LaMotte wants to accomplish. I hope that others will stand behind her in demanding safer beaches for our tourists in Walton County.
Having lifeguards does not have to cost property owners anything. The tourist development tax (or "bed tax" as it is known) could be used to pass the costs on to the tourist.
I can anticipate the argument that "people won't pay any attention to lifeguards." No, not if the county simply hires them and doesn't give them any authority. But many beach communities make it a violation of the law to disobey a lifeguard, and Walton County could do the same.
We have waited far too long to act on this problem. ABC's 20/20 last night has cast a cloud over Walton County and the county commisioner's interview in that televised news story makes the county appear callous, uninformed, and indifferent to the problem.
Just my 2 cents.
(Though there may well be another more correct term for it.)
