July is now Rip Current Awareness Month in Nassau County

Rip currents are powerful, narrow channels of fast-moving water headed away from shore that aren’t easy for recreational swimmers to spot. Panicked swimmers who find themselves caught in a rip current often try to swim against it, which only increases their risk of drowning due to fatigue that quickly turns into exhaustion.

Garden City resident Josephine De Moura lost her daughter, Alexandra, that way on Aug. 4, 2019. Alexandra, a standout gymnast at Garden City High school who went on to compete at George Washington University, was on vacation with some friends in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, when she was swept from a sandbar. She tried to fight the rip current, but couldn’t.

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman came to Nickerson Beach on July 5 to tell Alexandra’s story and to announce the month of July’s new designation in the county — Rip Current Awareness Month.

Josh Lafazan, Nassau County legislator for District 18, has been working with De Moura for the last year, in which time he introduced a bill referred to as “Alexandra’s Law.” The proposed bill included supporting signage on Nassau beaches and awareness coordination with the county’s parks department, as well as promoting public education about the dangers of rip currents in local schools.

While some of these measures have been incorporated into Blakeman’s new initiative, such as signage at beaches, Lafazan emphasized that more could be done to save lives.

“I think that at the end of the day, even though the county doesn’t mandate curriculum in schools, we can still develop tools that schools can disseminate to kids, and I see no reason to wait,” Lafazan said. “We should be teaching about riptide safety as kids go to the ocean and face that same danger.”

At the event Blakeman was joined by Rich Nicolello, presiding officer of the County Legislature; Darcy Belyea, the county commissioner of parks, recreation and museums; and Josephine De Moura.

Blakeman cited what he described as “a terrible statistic”: More than 60 people in the United States have drowned in rip currents already this year. “So, we have to know how to negotiate our way out of rip currents,” he said. “That’s what we’re doing here today.”

Blakeman spoke about the dangers of the ocean and how to be safe, and signed an executive order giving July its new recognition. De Moura then spoke about her daughter.

“Her natural instinct was to fight against the current, and she tired out not knowing what to do and drowned,” she said. “If I can save one family from the devastation that my family and I are going through, it is my mission. Knowledge is power.”

De Moura created a rip current safety course at Garden City High. In it, students learn how to navigate and escape from a rip current if they’re ever caught in one, by swimming parallel to shore until they are free of the current’s pull, and then swimming back to the beach. De Moura said her plan is to get the course into every Long Island school district.

Blakeman and De Moura then unveiled a new rip current safety sign at the entrance ramp to Nickerson Beach. It is one of eight new signs in Lido Beach, dedicated to Alexandra, that will educate beachgoers on how to identify a rip current and what to do if they are caught in one.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, rip currents are more likely to occur at low tide, when waves are breaking over sandbars near the shore.

Blakeman also praised the local beach lifeguards, and reminded visitors that along with the new signage, the lifeguard crews’ green flags indicate where it’s safe to swim, while red ones mark where it’s not.

He also touted some of the additional technology town guards and county marine units have been using this summer — many of them in response to reports of sharks, but all of which will enhance ocean swimmers’ safety.

“We’re on the beaches with all-terrain vehicles, we’re in the sky with helicopters, we’re on the water with the police marine boats and we have drones that are flying constantly to make sure that all of our residents are safe at the beaches,” Blakeman said.

Additional reporting by Will Sheeline