Great Lakes swimmers: Beware of potentially deadly rip currents

Updated 5:10 PM June 17, 2004

Great Lakes swimmers: Beware of potentially deadly rip currents

By Laura Bailey
News Service

Rip currents in the Great Lakes are a deadly but largely unknown phenomenon, and U-M, through the Michigan Sea Grant College Program, has joined a national campaign to educate the public about the potentially fatal waters.

People often associate rip currents—channel currents that can sweep them from shore—with oceans, says Donald Scavia, professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) and director of Michigan Sea Grant, a joint program between U-M and Michigan State University. It is administered through SNRE.

In the past two years, at least 18 people have drowned in the Great Lakes, and experts believe a majority of these deaths probably happened because people panicked when a rip current pulled them from shore. Nationally, lifeguards rescue approximately 60,000 people from drowning a year, and an estimated 80 percent are caused by rip currents. Additionally, an estimated 100 people drown from rip currents annually—more people than are killed by tornadoes or lightning, Scavia says.

Rip currents form when waves break near shore, piling up water between breaking waves and the beach.

"If the beach is set up just right, the water comes up on the shore and it will collect and shoot out in a small underwater river. That underwater river is in fact the rip current," Scavia says. "Rip channels can be as much as 10 to 20 feet across and move at speeds a little slower than you can run but faster than just about anybody can swim."

That means it's impossible to out-swim a rip current by swimming against it, he says.

"The most important thing is that if you get caught up in a rip current, simply relax and float, then swim parallel to the shore. It's easy to swim out of a rip current but not up against it," Scavia says. Visualize getting off a treadmill by stepping off to either side, he says.

Rip currents are tough for the layperson to recognize, but subtle signs exist, such as: a channel of churning, choppy water; an area of different color; debris moving steadily offshore; or a break in the incoming wave pattern.

Michigan Sea Grant—in collaboration with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Sea Grant, NOAA-National Weather Service and the United States Lifesaving Association—has developed brochures and beach signs warning people of rip currents and how to escape them.

New rip current brochures are available by contacting Michigan Sea Grant at (734) 764-1118, msgpubs@umich.edu. A design template for the production of beach signs is available for use by community organizations interested in water safety; visit http://www.miseagrant.umich.edu/rip for details.

Great Lakes swimmers: Beware of potentially deadly rip currents

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