The tragedy at Long Point will be remembered for generations, and it offers powerful lessons for all of us about navigating the treacherous waters of a rip current.
A father died after trying to rescue his teenage sons amid a rip current late last week at Long Point Wildlife Refuge. What the father, Kevin Foster, 55, of Cambridge, tried to do is nothing short of heroic, and The Times extends our deepest condolences to his family, and our gratitude to first responders who raced to the remote strip of beach and were able to save his sons and two other people struggling to make it back to shore.
In light of this tragedy, we urge swimmers and families to be especially diligent while at Island beaches, especially on the south shore, over the summer. The Times talked to a federal agent and a local swimming coach about safe swimming, including where this incident took place and other deaths have occurred. On Friday, July 31, when the incident occurred, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Weather Service (NWS) reported a high risk of strong rip currents for Nantucket and a moderate risk for Martha’s Vineyard. But Frank Nocera, a warning-coordination meteorologist for NWS, said that there’s a pretty short distance between the two islands when it comes to the severity of rip currents. It’s like “splitting hair,” Nocera said.
A lot of rip current fatalities happen at unguarded beaches near rocks and jetties, and while Long Point doesn’t have jetties, it is unguarded; rangers at the beach do have access to rescue boards. Nocera, who’s swum at South Beach before, said that the most dangerous rip currents occur in the days before and after a storm. He said Monday’s rainstorm, which received a high surf advisory, closed beaches, and produced strong southerly winds, is a perfect example of that. He advised swimmers to be aware of weather patterns, and understand that the day before and after a storm have the highest risk of rip currents.
Rip currents are always there, but vary in strength. At every beach, there is a sandbar, and at low tide, they are exposed off in the distance. At high tide, however, they disappear, and they’re not uniform. There are little cuts and inlets in the sandbar, and waves crash on shore and then go back out to sea, the water looks to go over the area of least resistance and accelerates over shallower depths of water.
Jen Passafiume, director of aquatics at the Island’s YMCA, has taught scores of Islanders to swim. She was sailing on Friday, and decided not to go toward the Island’s south shore because it was so choppy east of the Vineyard, where it’s often tamer. In the third grade, every Islander goes to the Y for water safety training, which includes a makeshift rip current (simulated by the waterslide). The trouble, Passafiume said, is that while Islanders get training in their elementary years, the same isn’t always true for visitors. Passafiume’s best advice is that people need to stay calm. She said that a swimmer in a rip current should let themselves float on their back and allow the current to move them to another location, then swim perpendicular to the current, especially if the current doesn’t go, in typical fashion out, but curves toward the beach. She also advised that no one, unless they’re trained or have a flotation device, go out to try and save anyone else. She said that while people wait for first responders, they should throw something out in the current that floats.
There aren’t any lifeguards at several beaches on the Island, and we want to continue to remind people to swim safely, and be wary of the forces of the ocean that aren’t visible from the shore.
Here are some helpful resources from federal agencies:
- A forecast rip current risk-level map: weather.gov/beach/forecast?site=box&action=
- A rip current risk map: nhc.noaa.gov/rip-currents/map.html
