DANGEROUS WATERS

A sandbar runs alongside our island. At high tide, it's invisible. At low time, it entices tourists to go out with umbrellas and beach chairs to enjoy the ocean.

What they don't know is that when the tide turns, the sandbar becomes a trap. The tidal pool they waded through or the wet sand they walked on to go out onto the sandbar, quickly changes to a rapid current of water when the tide comes in, a current that can carry strong swimmers away. Unfortunately, it's happened several times in the few years we've lived here.

Like a fourteen-year-old girl in 2010. Her mother and young sister made it to safety, but she didn't and was lost. And last year, a soldier and his family were out on the sandbar. He got them to shore before being swept away, though his body was later recovered.

Now it's happened again. As I wrote Monday about the lovely beach and how we enjoyed living here, searchers were out. A teenager who'd been out with a couple of his friends to play in the ocean had been washed away. This time was a little different because the tide wasn't coming in. He simply stepped off the sandbar on the ocean side into a drop off and never resurfaced. That happened Sunday. His body was retrieved a couple of days later and his funeral will be tomorrow. His friends, fortunately, were rescued by a kayaker who gave them life jackets and towed them to safety.

Strangely, the police chief was already on the County Commission's agenda for last night, to ask for funds to post warning signs and put an emergency response center beachside. It passed, of course, as it should have after another tragic drowning.

What I don't understand is why it's taken so long to get this done. There are lifeguards between certain hours, but there is nothing to warn people that the sandbar isn't safe, that the tide is unpredictable and dangerous. I remember a proposal to put red flags out whenever a rip current threatens, but that never happened. I wonder if it's because the authorities were afraid of discouraging tourists?

So we've lost another person, a fine one from all accounts. He would have been a junior this year and was in the Navy Junior ROTC program. Everyone agrees he was a quiet, likable young man whose too-young demise leaves his family and friends griefstricken. My heart goes out to his mother.

Maybe he would have stepped off into the ocean anyway, even with a series of signs and in full knowledge of the dangers. But maybe he wouldn't. I find it hard to understand why it's taken so long to get warning signs and a rescue station set up.

SWIM TRAGEDY

Our sandbars here are enticing, but they're dangerous. The quickly rising sea means currents run so hard between them and the shore that people can be swept away. That's what happened this past weekend.

A thirty-year-old army sergeant and his children were on the sandbar as the tide began to come in. They floundered in the suddenly-deep water between the beach and sandbar, but bystanders pulled the children to safety. Unfortunately, a wave knocked the father down before rescuers could get to him. They did recover his body last night when fisherman at the pier saw the current carrying it past. Not much consolation, but it does mean some closure for the family.

Drownings like this happen a lot down here. It seems the currents claim someone every few years. The lifeguards leave at four; this drowning happened shortly after. There are also signs cautioning people about the currents, but I'm not sure they're prominent or explicit enough. People don't understand that going onto the sandbars during the rising tide means they can be stranded with a rushing stream of water between them and the shore.

Thinking of the widow and her children breaks your heart.