High Surf in Coastal Volusia County, Florida

An Orlando man who was body-boarding in swells on Bethune Beach in New Smyrna Beach associated with distant Hurricane Bill, was battered by large waves as he ventured out further than his family into the pounding surf. He was then washed back towards shore unconscious and later pronounced dead at a local hospital.

As major Hurricane Bill moved north over the Atlantic, paralleling the Florida coast approximately 900 miles offshore, rough surf occurred along the east central Florida beaches. Long period swells began increasing at the beaches late Friday, August 21, with breaking surf peaking at 5 to 6 feet during the morning and afternoon of Saturday August 22. One person drowned while body-boarding in the rough surf in Volusia County.