Double drownings put spotlight on riptides, flags

DESTIN, FL - Rip currents claimed two more lives on Destin beaches over the weekend, once again drawing much needed attention to this fatal force of nature.

"I've been here for five years now and we've rescued over 500 people on the beach in Destin," said Joe D'Agostino, chief of Destin Beach Safety Patrol. "Only two instances (in the past) were non-rip current related."

Late Friday afternoon, Joseph Jones, a 39-year-old from Riverdale, Ga., was pronounced dead at the hospital after entering the Gulf around 5 p.m. to help two young girls that were caught in a rip current. He became Destin's first drowning victim in two years.

The next day, Airman 1st Class Josh Roussell, who was with the 46th Test Wing on Eglin Air Force Base, died shortly after 6 p.m. after he was pulled out in a rip current while playing football in waist-deep water with his brother-in-law.

Both incidents occurred respectively at Hutchinson Street and Pompano Street public access points in red flag conditions shortly after lifeguards were off duty for the day.

Red flags were flying during both days, but they were taken down by lifeguards at the end of their shifts. That's standard procedure, according to Destin Fire Control District personnel. In Walton County, however, lifeguards keep flags flying in off-duty hours, even though that is something they "are always evaluating," said Marc Anderson, assistant chief at the fire department.

"The flags are a minor tool, but there are still plenty of people that don't pay attention to them," D'Agostino said. "When flags come down that's an indicator that lifeguards are no longer on duty. And you are 100 percent swimming at your own risk."

He said that folks who think flags should fly 24 hours a day are incorrect, since the principal use of the flags is to keep beachgoers appraised of current conditions.

"When we left the beach on Friday and Saturday we told every person red flags are flying," he said. "We told every person we were leaving the beach."

"No one has a store that's open 24 hours a day and you take the candy and leave the money on the counter," he said. "A business is open when a business is open."

And, he added, beaches are open for safe swimming only when a lifeguard is on duty.

"Flags don't save people," he added. "The only thing that's ever prevented people from drowning are lifeguards."

Beach-goers often underestimate the actual danger of a rip current, or mistake it for an undertow, which D'Agostino said is not the culprit locally.

"Undertow is a misnomer," D'Agostino said. "People believe there is something out there that pulls you under, but there is nothing here in these rips that pull you under."

Rip currents pull their victims horizontally away from the shoreline and swimmers can meet their demise when they get fatigued, lose their buoyancy or lack swimming skills.

D'Agostino further said that the United States Lifesaving Association reports that 80 percent of all rescues are rip current related on open water beaches.

The National Weather Service has issued guidelines for what to do if caught in a rip current. In short, remain calm to conserve energy and swim out of the current in the direction following the shoreline. If the current is too strong, float or calmly tread water until out of the current.

D'Agostino urges beachgoers to call 911 if someone is in distress, adding that the victim - like Jones - may become the one who is trying to save others.