We fail in issuing rip current warnings

Maybe it just seems like it happens every year, but the news near the end of the season that someone has drowned because of a rip current is all too familiar.

These stories almost always involve people swimming in the ocean when the lifeguards aren’t on duty. It is too simple to argue that as tragic as these incidents are, the victims themselves are to blame for not observing the basic rules of safety.

That is an over-simplification of the situation, because it mistakenly assumes that everyone who visits the beach, day or night, is familiar with how treacherous the ocean can be or, more specifically, understands the nature of rip currents.

Some of the fault for that is our own, because we do not drive home that information week after week, despite the constant warnings and advisories issued by the Beach Patrol. We wrongly conclude that because we run a rip current story once or twice and that the members of the Beach Patrol routinely address the crowds near their stands that people should be aware of this particular danger.

Yet, when the Beach Patrol is forced to make 250 surf rescues in a weekend, it’s obvious that we, and the town itself, have not done enough to inform the public.

Because of the weekly turnover of hundreds of thousands of visitors, reaching everyone with the occasional advisory is a mathematical impossibility. And maybe we all are a little reluctant to cry danger too loudly as summer winds down.

Even so, some years ago, when everyone was concerned about the growing number of pedestrian fatalities, the town of Ocean City and the community joined in a major pedestrian safety campaign.

The same should be done this time of year for swimmers. After this past weekend’s events, it is obvious that the Beach Patrol could use some help alerting visitors to the changing nature of the ocean as fall approaches and storms churn offshore.