Great Lakes drownings: 89 so far this year

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A warning sign near Van's Beach in Leland at Lake Michigan on Monday lists steps to take if a rip current is encountered, along with other beach safety information. Leelanau County teen Brian Rolston drowned August 30 at Van's Beach due to a rip current in Lake Michigan. Record-Eagle/Keith King
Waves from Lake Michigan meet the shoreline at Van's Beach on Monday in Leland. Record-Eagle/Keith King

September 11, 2012

Great Lakes drownings: 89 so far this year

BY GLENN PUIT gpuit@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Tue Sep 11, 2012, 07:14 AM EDT

BEULAH — Jackie Kovacs went to Peterson Beach in Benzie County for swimming and sun, but she ended up barely surviving a nightmare of rip currents.

It's a story all too familiar in Lake Michigan coastal communities: Kovacs, a tourist from Lombard, Ill., watched in horror Aug. 5 as a menacing Lake Michigan rip current swept her 10-year-old granddaughter from the shoreline. Kovacs rushed into the water to rescue the child, and the current gripped her, too.

Kovacs and her granddaughter were rescued from their frightening ordeal, but Ohio tourist Kevin Patrick Schlake, 40, was not so lucky. Three hours later, he became one of 89 people to drown in the Great Lakes this year when he fell victim to the same merciless currents at Peterson Beach.

"I don't think I'll ever be in the lake again," Kovacs said. "I can't bear the thought."-

The 89 drownings are two more than the total for all of 2011, and one expert said Monday deaths in the Great Lakes are now at a "pandemic-like" level. The number of fatalities should prompt communities to completely rethink beach and water safety, he said.

"I read an article about the West Nile Virus in Michigan: some 80 cases and four deaths, and they called it an epidemic," said Dave Benjamin, executive director of the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project. "On the Great Lakes, we've had 250 drownings since 2010. This is pandemic-like, and it's still not getting attention."

Northern Michigan is well-versed in the particular brand of tragedy. Less than a month after Schlake's death, Brian Paul Rolston, 16, drowned at Van's Beach in Leelanau County on Aug. 30.

Like Schlake's death, Rolston's drowning followed reports of dangerous lake conditions and rip currents. Community grief over Rolston's death prompted a local discussion about the safety of Van's Beach. Leland Township board members were scheduled to discuss safety concerns at their Monday meeting.

"I've heard everything from signage to closing the beach entirely to hiring lifeguards and having a flag system," said Susan Och, a Leland Township board member. "When a tragedy like this happens, we swallow the bitter pill, and we try "¦ to learn."

Benjamin said the chief rule for swimming in the Great Lakes is respect for the water's power. He encourages swimmers to follow the Michigan Sea Grant's "Flip, Float and Follow" strategy when caught in a rip current. The first step is for swimmers to flip onto their back and float to conserve energy and fight off a sense of panic.

The next step is to follow the current and swim perpendicular to the current's flow, until the swimmer is able to emerge.

"When you are floating, you can calm down and assess which way it's pulling you," Benjamin said. "As long as you are floating, you are alive. As long as you are struggling, you are drowning."

For Kovacs, solutions can be found in more diligent notices of rip current dangers and closing beaches when dangerous conditions arise.

Tom Ulrich, deputy superintendent of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, said a rip current warning was posted at Peterson Beach prior to Schlake's death. But the National Park Service is reviewing its procedures to see if additional safety steps can be taken.

"I've asked my safety committee to review our information that we make available, including our inventory of signage," Ulrich said. "We do plan to make sure our road end beaches — the places where people access the beach — that there is that signage that warns them of the possibility of rip currents."

"Every beach should have a warning sign — a giant sign," Kovacs said, adding the experience of nearly drowning in a rip current left her terrified.

"It was like something evil was in the water," she said.