GALVESTON — While Galveston has been enjoying a banner week of rare blue waters thanks to a temporary lack of silt and mud being kicked up by the Gulf currents, there's a cruel twist to what has become a renewed attraction: rip currents today have made swimming potentially dangerous.
A rip current is a channel of water that can pull a swimmer into deeper water. This can be very bad for people who have waded out past their waist and can not swim. Even experienced swimmers can get in trouble if they try to fight the current. Because it pulls faster than an Olympic swimmer can swim, fatigue sets in for anyone trying to go against it and can result in drowning.
If you're caught in one, the best way to survive is to tread water or swim gently parallel to the beach, until the current releases you a few hundred yards out. Then, swim slowly swim back to shore. If you can keep your cool and conserve your energy, you'll most likely be fine. If there's a life guard in the area, wave one of your arms and yell, "help!", while treading water to get their attention. A lot of people panic because they are afraid of the ocean with sharks, etc. Statistically in Galveston, you are more likely to suffer a heart attack than be attacked by a shark so don't let that thought enter your mind. If all this sounds too much for you, never go deeper into the water than your knees on any day. Even if there's not an active rip current advisory, they can form with little warning due to shifting sands under the surface.
A rip current forms when water is pushed up onto the beach by relentless waves, pilling up behind the sand bar. When the pressure of the water becomes too great for the sand bar to hold back, it breaks and the waters near the beach in the surf zone are flushed out to sea.
Unfortunately, the wave action will likely churn up the silt today and tomorrow, clouding the water a bit, though the currents are still in a reversed mode for the short term so the waters should remain more beautiful than normal through the weekend. Beyond then, all bets are off. (Be safe and remember with all this hot weather, to look in the backseat to make sure everyone is accounted for, before you lock the car!) -Meteorologist Brooks Garner
