THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, August 15, 1995 TAG: 9508150281
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARA STANLEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
Dangerous riptides and strong undercurrents caused by Hurricane Felix forced lifeguards on Monday to keep swimmers out of the rough Atlantic.
Red flags signaling a dangerous surf flew all day along the hotel-lined Oceanfront, and tourists were allowed only to wade knee-deep in the swirling water. In North Carolina, guards kept people out of the ocean entirely.
``I'm upset because I can't go in the water,'' said 8-year-old Ashley Mayfield, a visitor from Maryland.
But 7-year-old Mackenzie White of Pittsburgh waded for a bit before deciding to stay safely on the beach. ``I'm afraid of the big waves,'' she said. ``They pull me under.''
Earlier, at least two people drowned and one was reported missing in Virginia and North Carolina. The Coast Guard said two of the three may have been sucked out to sea by riptides.
A riptide is a strong, narrow flow of water that rushes seaward after incoming waves pile up on the shore.
The current at Virginia Beach was so strong that it swept the body of a 26-year-old New York man about 5.5 miles in less than a day. The man fell off a boogie board at 19th Street on Sunday afternoon. His body was spotted at Fort Story by a military police officer Monday afternoon.
Police did not release the man's name, pending notification of family members.
William Kiley, an Emergency Medical Services administrator in Virginia Beach, said he didn't think the drowning of the man, who reportedly couldn't swim very well, was due to a riptide.
However, a riptide did cause a 33-year-old man from Wilmington, N.C., to drown Sunday while trying to save two young girls caught in another riptide near Fort Fisher, N.C., the Coast Guard said. The man was able to grab one of the girls, but apparently lost his grip and disappeared.
His body was found Monday morning near New River Inlet.
A search for a missing 16-year-old Tarboro, N.C., boy, who caught in a riptide near Bogue Island, N.C., at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday, was suspended Monday morning, the Coast Guard said.
In Virginia Beach, there were at least three rescues on Monday of people who underestimated their swimming ability in the heavy surf, Kiley said.
``When people get caught in a riptide, they are quickly pushed out into the ocean,'' Kiley said. ``Even the strongest swimmer could panic. When you panic, you drown.''
The best way to escape a riptide is to swim parallel to the beach and then let the waves bring you in to shore, Kiley said.
Coast Guard Rear Adm. W.J. Ecker surveyed the high waves at the Oceanfront firsthand. It is not a good idea, he said, for people to be swimming or surfing.
``We've lost people doing exactly that,'' he said. ``You can't legislate stupidity.
``Anything in advance of a hurricane, especially one that isn't moving very fast, generates waves and surf of this nature long before it gets to the shore.''
But surfers - usually strong swimmers - reveled in the heavy surf kicked up by the distant storm at beaches along the Virginia-North Carolina coast.
``You couldn't keep a surfer out of this water,'' said Capt. Kent Hinnant of the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service. ``They've been waiting for six months.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration
What are riptides
For copy of graphic, see microfilm
KEYWORDS: HURRICANE FELIX by CNB