Traverse City Record-Eagle

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SWIMMING TIPS

- What is a rip current?

Powerful, channeled currents of water flowing away from shore.

- How do you escape a rip current?

Remain calm to conserve energy. Never fight against the current. Swim out of the current, parallel to the shoreline. If you're unable to escape the rip current, float or calmly tread water.

— Information from the National Weather Service

Related Photos

  • A sign on the beach in Frankfort cautions swimmers to enter the water at their own risk. Keith King/Record-Eagle

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  • Youths mingle and swim Friday near a life ring along the pier in Frankfort that leads toward the Frankfort North Breakwater Light. Keith King/Record-Eagle

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August 21, 2010

Rip currents have been dangerous lately

BY ALEX PIAZZA apiazza@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Strong waves and powerful rip currents created dangerous swimming conditions at Lake Michigan beaches in recent days that caught some authorities by surprise.

"I've never seen it like this," said Frankfort Police Chief Keith Redder, a 24-year veteran of the department.

Two area residents died while swimming in Lake Michigan this week and rescue crews assisted several more swimmers who encountered dangerous water conditions.

Richard Habermas, 76, of Lake Ann, died Thursday in Lake Michigan after authorities said he got caught in a rip current and drowned. Habermas swam with his wife near Grand Haven, but she lost sight of him among the waves. His body was pulled from the lake after he spent several minutes underwater.

"The danger with rip currents is they can occur at any point in the day," said Kevin Sullivan, rip-current specialist with the National Weather Service station in Gaylord. "Rip currents can occur on days when we don't expect it."

Dolsey Squires, 41, of Northport, also died this week after she never returned home from an early-morning swim in Grand Traverse Bay. Squires apparently drowned and washed ashore near an Eastport beach on Tuesday, several miles away from where she initially entered the water in Northport. Her body was taken to Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids for an autopsy, but Leelanau Sheriff Mike Oltersdorf said the county's medical examiner couldn't determine her cause of death because she was submerged in the lake for several hours.

Rip currents are powerful water currents flowing away from shore, Sullivan said. They often develop along sandy shorelines and piers, like in Frankfort, and appear discolored or foamy.

Winds that exceed 15 mph, which were common this week throughout the region, can increase the strength of rip currents. Weather experts expect winds to calm down this weekend.

That's good news for Redder, who kept busy this week pulling swimmers from the water. One teen was transported in critical condition Tuesday to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids after he nearly drowned in Lake Michigan.

The teen got caught in a rip current, much like several others who were rescued this week off the Frankfort beach, Redder said.

U.S. Coast Guard officials in Frankfort responded this week to several water rescues. An off-duty Coast Guard official helped assist about a dozen swimmers on Sunday who got caught in a Lake Michigan rip current near the Frankfort pier.

"In the two years I've been here, that was the biggest all in one time," said senior Chief Mike Beatty, of the Frankfort Coast Guard station.

Some attribute the rash of incidents to an increase in lake temperatures that attracted more people to the beach.

Frankfort police and city officials this week discussed closing the beaches but decided to keep them open as strong winds subsided.

"If people are going in the water, there really isn't a whole lot you can do to stop them," Redder said.

Local authorities plan to continue to warn water enthusiasts about the dangers of rip currents, which kill more than 100 people every year, U.S. Lifesaving Association reports show. The association also reports more than 80 percent of lifeguard rescue missions involve rip currents.

Life rings and ropes are placed at the end of the Frankfort pier to assist swimmers who get caught in rip currents, Beatty said. He also recommends that those who get caught in rip currents swim parallel to shore instead of heading back in, which increases fatigue and could prompt a drowning. Authorities suggest life jackets for those who tackle rough waters.

Signs also line the beaches along Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to warm swimmers of rip currents, lakeshore deputy Superintendent Tom Ulrich said. But Ulrich said rip currents are not as much of a concern near the dunes area because of a lack of marine structures that can disrupt the water current.

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