Rip Current — Eastern Ocean, New Jersey

2012-06-20 · Eastern Ocean, New Jersey

Wider weather episode

More frequent and stronger than average rip currents claimed the lives of two men and caused dozens of rescues along New Jersey beaches on the 20th. Both drownings occurred after lifeguards left for the day. In Asbury Park (Monmouth County), on the Second Avenue Beach, a 23-year-old male drowned late in the afternoon when he tried to save his sister who was stuck in a rip current. His body was found approximately two hundred yards offshore. The sister was saved. Three other people were saved that day in Asbury Park after being pulled about 150 yards offshore. In Seaside Park (Ocean County), a 18-year-old male drowned after getting caught in a rip current off the O Street Beach, also late that afternoon. His body was recovered about one hundered fifty yards offshore the next day. There were three other rescues that day in Seaside Park and over thirty rescues just north in Seaside Heights (also in Ocean County). Other rip current rescues occurred in Bradley Beach (Monmouth County) and Perth Amboy (Middlesex County).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 388274. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.