Editor’s note: This important information is reprinted courtesy of the Coastal Review Online. More information on the danger of rip currents can be found here. To see the National Weather Service Experimental Beach Forecast Webpage for North Carolina, click here.
Three tourists drowned since June 3 in the ocean off the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. There have also been close calls and rescues elsewhere on North Carolina beaches in recent days.
The National Weather Service describes rip currents as powerful, channeled currents of water flowing away from shore. They typically extend from the shoreline, through the surf zone and past the line of breaking waves. Rip currents can occur at any beach with breaking waves.
If you become caught in a rip current, yell for help and remain calm. Do not exhaust yourself, and stay afloat while waiting for help.
If you have to swim out of a rip current, swim parallel to shore and back toward the beach when possible. Do not attempt to swim directly against a rip current as you will tire quickly.
In the video below, Francis Smith, a University of California Berkeley current oceanographer, explains rip currents, how to avoid them and how to escape them if pulled in.
