Surviving a rip current

AccuWeather's Melissa Constanzer shares essential tips on what to do if you're caught in a rip current.

Transcript

00:00For many locations around the nation, we're in the height of beach season, and that means

00:04that we will be trying to head to a spot on the map that is blue.

00:08But if you're headed to an ocean or even a great lake, you'll want to use some caution

00:12venturing into the water. Hidden dangers can quickly become

00:16deadly. Let's start with some of the basics. As you look at the

00:19colors of the flags here, and you can see these on many different beaches,

00:24you can tell there is dangerous marine life. That's going to be the purple

00:28flags that you find. Often this will mean jellyfish. Occasionally it means sharks. If you're

00:32near fishing piers, for example, that's what it could also mean. Then you have your

00:36colors of green, yellow, reds, just like a traffic light indicating

00:39the risk for rough seas and particularly rip currents,

00:44which are very deadly, unfortunately. The United States Lifesaving Association

00:48says there's 100 deaths associated each year by rip currents.

00:52What are rip currents? Well, you have all this wave action coming into the beaches. Eventually

00:56there has to be water that comes back out. Sometimes that comes in a big

01:00current or channel or river, if you will, that goes out to sea.

01:04How do we have to escape this if you end up caught on this? Because it will just continue

01:08to pull you out to sea or in some cases the lake. What you want to do is

01:12swim parallel to the shore. That's your escape route here and then try

01:16to work your way back in. That's going to be critical. Now, remember to try to stay

01:20calm. That is the hardest thing to do because usually when you start to experience the fact that

01:24you're drowning, the first thing is panicking. But if you can stay calm,

01:28then remember that escape route to swim parallel

01:30to the shore and then work your way in once you're

01:32out of that rip current. Of course,

01:34if you can't escape, remain floating

01:36calmly. Try to yell for help

01:38and wave and try to bring

01:40flotation devices around. Especially if you're

01:42on the beach, throw out flotation devices.

01:44Never try to swim out to someone that is

01:46struggling in the water.

01:47now.

01:48Then we'll leave the beach here.