By Donald Wittkowski
Barbara Rice looked at the swirling surf and decided it was too dangerous to venture out into the big waves cresting just a few yards from the beach.
“I just go up to my knees. No further,” she said matter-of-factly. “You wouldn’t want to go out any further.”
Rice, a former Sea Isle City resident who now lives in Wilmington, Del., said she enjoys swimming in the ocean almost every day she visits the Jersey Shore. But on Tuesday morning, she tip-toed warily into the turbulent water at Sea Isle’s 40th Street beach.
Treacherous waves and rip currents churned up by Hurricane Maria, which is lurking hundreds of miles away off the coast of North Carolina, have made Sea Isle’s beachgoers particularly cautious.
The Category 1 hurricane, packing sustained winds of 75 mph, is expected to stay well offshore of New Jersey as it moves north up the coast, but forecasters say it will continue to generate choppy surf.
Maria’s jaunt along the coast this week coincides with the time of year when Sea Isle and other shore communities no longer have their beaches protected by lifeguards. However, summer-like weather and unseasonably warm water at the end of September continue to attract visitors to the shore for one last fling at the beach.
“Usually, you’re looking at very few people on the beach at the end of September. Not this year,” said Capt. Renny Steele, who heads the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol.
Rice, who was visiting Tuesday with her sister, Jane Prinski, a Sea Isle resident, said she always respects the power of the ocean. She also noted that her sister provides an extra level of safety by checking the weather advisories.
“She warns me every day whether I can go in the water,” Rice said.
Steele urged people to stay out of the ocean when there are no lifeguards, especially during rough surf stirred up by a hurricane.
“The surf conditions are dangerous. We have cross currents and rip tides,” he said. “Stay out of the water.”
Steele stressed that children are particularly vulnerable. One moment they can be wading in what appears to be benign knee-deep water, and the next, they can be “floating out to sea,” he said.
Over the weekend, three people in Ocean and Monmouth counties died after being pulled from the hurricane-roiled surf.
Sea Isle was stunned by the deaths this summer of two men who succumbed to head and neck injuries in separate swimming accidents apparently caused by heavy surf. The first death occurred at the 86th Street beach on July 31, followed by the second at 59th Street only two days later.
Sea Isle officials ruled that both deaths were accidental. The lifeguards responded in a timely manner and there was no evidence of negligence on their part, Steele said. Lifeguards performed CPR on both swimmers before they were transported to local hospitals.
This summer, Sea Isle began using colored flags at the beaches to alert swimmers to surf conditions. A green flag means calm water, yellow indicates a moderately rough ocean and red warns of dangerous surf.
Sea Isle’s beach patrol also has a series of beach safety tips on its website, including information on storms, rip currents, head, neck and back injuries and stinging jelly fish.
Steele said the city also uses its website to warn the public of treacherous surf. Both the city and beach patrol also reach out to beachgoers through social media.
In a summer-end report to City Council on Tuesday, Steele said the beach patrol performed 12 major rescues between Memorial Day and Labor Day. There were also hundreds of so-called “fish-outs,” in which lifeguards were able to rescue swimmers without needing extra help.
The beach patrol was also able to reunite 49 lost children with their parents, Steele reported during the Council meeting.
With lifeguards no longer protecting Sea Isle’s beaches at this time of year, swimmers will have to be extra careful in the strong surf kicked up by Hurricane Maria.
Frank Donahue, a retiree from Philadelphia who is taking a late beach vacation in Sea Isle, said Tuesday that he considers rip currents to be particularly dangerous while Maria is looming offshore.
Donahue usually wades out to his waist to do some surf fishing, but the heavy waves and high risk of rip tides will keep him closer to shore this week.
“I’m not going out any deeper than my knees,” he said while gazing at the rough surf from the safety of the beach.
