Rip Currents Fatal Off LI, Brooklyn Beaches

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP)  -- There's a call for more lifeguards at the local beaches after several swimmers drowned over the weekend.


Terry Sheridan reports

The body of a man was retrieved from the waters off a park, but authorities couldn't confirm whether it was the man who disappeared from there while swimming on Friday, the beginning of a weekend that saw several people drown or disappear in strong water currents.

The conditions that prompted the dangerous rip currents were expected to remain over the next couple of weeks, the National Weather Service said.

1010 WINS Video: Fatal Weekend in Waters off New York

Authorities pulled the man's body from the waters off Jacob Riis Park in Queens on Monday morning. The medical examiner's office was scheduled to investigate to determine a cause of death.


Carol D'Auria reports

The man who disappeared on Friday was a 23-year-old who was swept away while a friend tried to rescue him. The Coast Guard had searched for him until calling off efforts on Saturday.

His disappearance was among a rash of swimming-related incidents. At least six other people drowned or went missing while swimming and are feared dead.

In Long Beach on Long Island on Saturday evening, a man died after he was spotted struggling about 150 yards from shore, said police Lt. Bruce Meyer. Lifeguards were off duty but rushed to the beach and reached the unconscious 29-year-old man within minutes. Rescuers and hospital staffers were unable to revive him, Meyer said.


Terry Sheridan Reports

``We have a problem with people coming down after hours,'' said Paul Gillespie, chief of lifeguards for Long Beach. ``They do not know the water here or they're very weak swimmers.''

Another man drowned and a teenager disappeared Friday on Long Beach while playing football in about 3 to 5 feet of water after lifeguard hours, officials said.

A 42-year-old man died Saturday afternoon after swimming at a beach near the ocean in East Quogue in Suffolk County. Another swimmer, a man in his 20s, drowned Friday afternoon at Sandy Bar Beach on Long Island's East End.

Click to Learn more about Rip Currents

A 10-year-old girl also disappeared Saturday off Coney Island, but the city's parks department said lifeguards didn't report any strong rip current at that location at the time.

The girl, Akira Johnson, was swimming with her cousin Tyriek Currie, also 10. The boy was pulled from the water.

LISTEN NOW to 1010 WINS

Rip currents, strong currents of water moving off the shore, can hit speeds of up to 8 feet per second. Gary Conte, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said a couple of factors were at play: The jet stream is farther south than usual, which leads to conditions in which strong rip currents are possible, and the early part of the hurricane season has been more active than usual.

``Those conditions are favorable for more, and more intense, riptides,'' he said, adding that the conditions were likely to remain for the next two weeks, making it possible for more rip currents to occur.

Lifeguards say anyone caught in a rip current should not try to swim against it to get back to shore but instead should swim to the left or right.

Photos by 1010 WINS' Terry Sheridan and the Associated Press.

1010 WINS Boroughs & 'Burbs: Brooklyn l Long Island