A Gulf Coast killer

In coastal areas, rip currents take more lives than any other type of weather “event.” That played out in a terrible way Friday and over the weekend, with several drownings and rescues taking place along the northern Gulf Coast.

Three friends from Alabama died after being swept up in a rip current off Panama City Beach, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.

The three were in a group of six from Birmingham. They reached the beach Friday, checked into their Airbnb and went swimming in the Gulf off Thomas Drive around 8 p.m. After they were caught in the rip, they were reported missing and eventually rescued and taken to a hospital for treatment. Harold Denzel Hunter, Jemonda Ray and Marius Richardson, all ages 24-25, were treated but did not make it.

Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said responders were in the water for more than two hours trying to make the rescue.

According to the Sheriff’s Office’s Facebook page, single red flags were flying on the beaches Friday. Single reds indicate high-hazard conditions with high surf or currents. Authorities don’t keep people out of the water at the threat of arrest, like they do under double-red flags, but it’s a signal to choose to stay on the beach.

A dangerous party

Shooting that broke out at a Montgomery party before 2 a.m. Sunday resulted in nine people shot and more injured in the chaos, reports AL.com’s Carol Robinson.

Police say they found 350 spent shell casings on the scene in the North Pass community. Authorities said none of the injuries were life-threatening.

In addition to the nine shooting victims, three people were hit by vehicles and one was hit by flying glass.

Acting Montgomery Police Chief John Hall called the party “unpermitted” because it wasn’t confined to a single property. Authorities also said that more than 1,000 people may have been in the crowd.

Mayor Steven Reed asked witnesses to speak up. The FBI, ATF and State Bureau of Investigation are helping Montgomery Police investigate.

Another medical option

In your job, you may have done a little more work — or a lot more work — virtually from home during the pandemic. If you did, then I’ll bet it’s a tool that you’ve used at least a few times since.

Similarly, some schools have on occasion switched back to virtual classrooms in the event of, say, a flu outbreak among students.

Well, the medical field is also using the technology and skills that it has developed to cover some of the well-documented needs in rural Alabama, reports AL.com’s Amy Yurkanin.

UAB Hospital is using its first tele-ICU program to partner with Whitfield Regional Hospital and help treat patients in Demopolis. It involves a team of doctors at Whitfield and specialists at UAB sharing information about a patient.

Nurses at UAB can monitor patients in Demopolis around-the-clock, watching for changes, and specialists can make treatment recommendations to the caregivers at Whitfield.

The program has its roots in the COVID pandemic. With the bigger hospitals filled up with patients, Whitfield found itself with more than 1,500 itself — and with 500 of those on ventilators. With telehealth now greatly improved, Whitfield medical workers find themselves treating other serious conditions. For example, they’re keeping most stroke patients there, while before this program they had to find some other place to go.

By the Numbers

That’s the average number of viewers who were tuned in to Fox during the “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues” game last Thursday.

More Alabama News

Quiz results

Here are the answers (and how readers did) for Friday’s quiz:

Willie Mays, the baseball legend who passed away Tuesday at age 93, was from this former city in Central Alabama:

• Westfield (CORRECT) 70.6%
• Jonesboro 11.9%
• Elyton 11.9%
• Bibb City 5.6%

The Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church recently announced:

• The closing of 10 congregations with falling membership numbers. (CORRECT) 96.5%
• A softball game against the state’s Southern Baptists. 2.8%
• That any members jumping back to the UMC from disaffiliated church will get extra ice cream at summertime church events. 0.7%
• A membership drive targeting lawyers and accountants. 0.0%

Tropical Storm Alberto became the first named storm of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season when it formed off the Yucatan Peninsula. What impact has it likely had on the Alabama Gulf Coast?

• Double-red flags flying at the beaches. (CORRECT) 76.9%
• Coastal flooding. 13.3%
• A light breeze. 8.4%
• Bull sharks fleeing the Gulf and taking cover in Gulf Coast river systems. 1.4%

The Birmingham Stallions recently won the UFL title, giving the Stallions three league titles (2 USFL, 1 UFL) in all three years of their existence. Who’s the team’s head coach?

• Terry Bowden 4.2%
• Skip Holtz (CORRECT) 84.6%
• Eddie Robinson Jr. 11.2%
• Kristen Saban 0.0%

We recently passed the birthday of prolific actor Pat Buttram (1915-1994) of Addison, Ala. TV viewers of the 1960s might’ve known him by this name:

• Ernest T. Bass 25.2%
• Mr. Haney (CORRECT) 67.8%
• Uncle Joe Carson 6.3%
• My Mother the Car 0.7%

The podcast

We remember a countryfied Black Baron.

You can find “Down in Alabama” wherever you get your podcasts, including these places: