A survey conducted by lifeguards in Orange Beach and Gulf Shores last year illustrated the “vacation brain” that occurs when a record surge of visitors flock to Alabama’s beaches each summer for surf and sand.

The survey results showed that the typical vacationer has little clue about surf warnings.

A rip current? That won’t hurt a good swimmer like me, will it?

“A lot of residents knew what the beach warning flags meant, or had a general idea, but a majority of the tourists did not,” said Melvin Shepard, chief of staff for the Gulf Shores Fire Department and a longtime lifeguard patrolling the coastal shoreline.

The lack of awareness is creating a dangerous situation along the Northern Gulf Coast, and frustration is mounting. Last month, a sheriff near Panama City Beach proclaimed he was “beyond frustrated” at the increased drownings which have already reached the overall number of rip current drownings as all of last year in the U.S.

Searching for solutions

Politicians, lifeguards and researchers are scrambling for solutions. Some have already been implemented and are constantly monitored like Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism’s BEach SAFE informational campaign, which has seen increases in online visitors from June 2023 over June 2022.

But it appears beach safety continues to evolve, including policies that might be considered to improve unincorporated Fort Morgan – a 14-mile peninsula that does not have a beach warning flag system and is without lifeguards.

“There are some conversations happening right now,” said state Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Daphne, about intergovernmental agreements to improve the peninsula’s beach safety.

Locally, beach safety continues to be addressed:

The BEach SAFE campaign, aimed at creating awareness among visitors and residents about beach conditions and warning flags, is spreading throughout the coastal region. Information has been provided to businesses, including restaurants and bars. The materials include posters, window clings, magnets, social media graphics and logos, and a pre-arrival letter disseminated to rental agencies.

• More local residents are replying to visitors on social media about BEach SAFE, and how to sign up for text alerts about beach conditions. They can do so by texting “ALBEACHES” to “888777.” According to Baldwin County EMA, there have been 4,700 new opt-ins for the beach conditions text messaging system, and a total of 27,903 recipients in June.
• In Fort Morgan, a volunteer fire department is heralding its Dolphin-1 rescue buoys for answering distress swimmer calls. Electronic signage continues to be placed along Fort Morgan Road alerting visitors to the Gulf’s surf conditions.
• In Dauphin Island, where there are no full-time lifeguards patrolling the barrier island’s beaches, there is a new beach flag warning system in place. Electronic signs are also in place along the main roads into the island and if dangerous surf is present, they will flash a rip current warning, according to Mayor Jeff Collier.
• Gulf Shores and Orange Beach each have about 30 personnel trained as lifeguards who patrol the beaches routinely.

Beach bag life jacket

Other approaches are being explored by researchers such as “Dr. Beach” in Florida.

Stephen Leatherman, a professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at Florida International University in Miami – who goes by the moniker “Dr. Beach,” and who is a renowned researcher of rip currents – has a U.S. patent for a lifesaving beach bag that can be utilized for water rescues.

Leatherman said the bag could be a useful item for people visiting beaches where lifeguards are not present, which he said is a majority of beaches in Florida. He said the devices could be useful for visitors to Fort Morgan and Dauphin Island.

“When people go to the beach, they have a beach bag to put their food and book and towel and sunscreen in, but we don’t see people bringing life jackets to the beach with them,” Leatherman said. “If we had that available, people could presumably help save someone or their own child.”

Leatherman said the bag doubles as a life jacket and is something he said he would be willing to partner with an agency in Alabama to help disseminate to rental agencies.

“It’s not common to have lifeguards,” he said. “Look at the drownings in Panama City Beach area. There are lifeguards there.”

Rising dangers

The scramble to find unique ways to educate the public, or protect them, comes at a time that rip currents continue to be a deadly byproduct of Alabama’s record-breaking tourism.

Rip currents are a powerful natural wave phenomena that are riverlike channels of water moving at different speeds from the shoreline.

They can move at high speeds of up to eight feet per second, faster than an Olympic swimmer.

“Rip currents are unique and are different from any other weather-related hazard,” said Brett Lesinger, the beach safety division chief in Orange Beach. “A hurricane, there is a lot of technology (to understand their strength) and you have a general warning of when one is coming. You know a giant storm is on the way.”

He added, “People don’t see the rip current danger in front of them. They are not intimidated and are not scared. And as much informational stuff we put there about them, it’s just not that blatant danger and (people) will assume it’s a safe condition.”

Until it’s not.

Statistics show drownings from rip currents are on the rise. So far this year, there have been 53 deaths in the U.S. attributed to rip currents, which is the same number to have occurred in all of 2022, according to the National Weather Service’s data.

Florida is by far the No. 1 deadliest zone for deaths. Alabama, according to one analysis, has recorded 25 rip current fatalities from 2017-2023, which ranks the state No. 4, trailing only Florida, North Carolina and Texas.

Alabama, with approximately 50 miles of Gulf beaches, has recorded more rip current deaths than California, which has a coastline of over 840 miles and is a state with a whopping 420 beaches.

“It has to do with the human environment more than the natural environment,” said Brian Dzwonkowski, associate professor at the Stokes School of Marine and Environmental Sciences at the University of South Alabama and a senior marine research scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.

“The wave climate in California or New York is not significantly more than what you have in the Gulf Coast,” he said. “I don’t think the rip current environment would be expected to be anymore intense than in the northern Gulf of Mexico. The bigger issue is related to inexperience.”

‘Tourist brain’

There are also so many visitors coming to the Gulf Coast – much more than in the not-so-distant past.

Indeed, the rise in Gulf drownings and beach rescues in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach can be attributed to the explosion in tourism in coastal Alabama within the past 12 years. Baldwin County hosted 8.3 million visitors last year, a whopping 69% increase over the 4.9 million visitors who visited the beaches in 2011, the year after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and subsequent oil spill.

And with that rise means more people unfamiliar with the wavy Gulf and less cautious about entering the water whenever red warning flags rise.

“We are seeing a drastic increase in the number of people coming to the beaches,” Lesinger said. “That, alone, is different. Ten years ago, we probably had significantly less issues because of (fewer) people visiting the Gulf Coast.”

Said Shepard, “Once people get there, they are in vacation mode. They came to the beach. They want to get into the water. And they don’t think about the hazards of getting into an open body of water.”

He added, “Even with the Gulf being flat, there are still rip currents. The water is still moving. And you toss into the fact that they are in the heat and people are dehydrated from not drinking enough water and they are fatigued … they get into trouble.”

Lesinger said the scenarios can be frustrating because a tourist will often ignore the beach warning flags. When double red flags are flying, they are prohibited from entering the Gulf. But even then, the visitors will ignore the warnings from the flags and roving lifeguard patrols who will alert them about staying out of the water.

“They don’t often snap back at us, but it’s one of those things where they say, ‘Yes, we understand,’ and then you go away and five minutes later, they are back doing the same thing they did before,” Lesinger said.

Authorities in Gulf Shores and Orange Beach can arrest or fine someone who violates the beach warning flag system, or who enters the Gulf when double red flags are flying.

Shepard, however, said no tickets have been issued that he can recall.

“We haven’t written one yet,” he said. “We don’t want to have to write one.”

Fines can be up to $500. Violators can also be jailed.

“We have an ordinance that allows the Police Department to do that,” he said. “The problem is for police to write a ticket, they must witness the infraction. If police are not there, it takes a lifeguard having to go to the magistrate’s office and do a warrant. We don’t have the ability to send a lifeguard to do that.”

Shepard said he remains in disbelief over people who allow their children to frolic in the Gulf whenever the waters are so rough that double red flags are flying.

“If there are little kids involved, I explain it to them that the water is closed for your safety,” Shepard said. “I’ll get asked, ‘can I go to the ankles?’ No. I explain it’s a $500 fine or being arrested. If I see them (go in), as I drive off, I’ll go back and explain it to them that … they will have to deal with the police.”

He added, “They will argue sometimes, ‘We paid our money to come down here,’ and I understand that. But if your kid drowns, what have you accomplished? It’s not always a pleasant conversation. But the lifeguards have to do what they can.”