Rip Current — Brevard, Florida

2016-05-28 to 2016-05-30 · Brevard, Florida

Event narrative

At about 1530LST on May 29, lifeguards at Spessard Holland Beach in Melbourne Beach rescued a 53 year old man from a rip current and resuscitated him. The man was transported to a local hospital, where he died approximately two weeks later. The cause of death was drowning. At about the same time of the initial incident, another lifeguard rescued two swimmers caught in a nearby rip current and noticed a third person submerged. The body of the third victim, a 20 year old male from Kissimmee, was recovered a few hours later. An autopsy confirmed he died due to drowning.

Wider weather episode

A moderate to high rip current risk affected the east-central Florida coast over the Memorial Day weekend, in part due to long period swells associated with Tropical Storm Bonnie which passed far offshore. Three swimmers were caught in rip currents, two in Brevard County on May 29 and the other on May 30 in Volusia County. Two of the swimmers died shortly after the incidents and the third passed away in a hospital approximately two weeks later.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 627093. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.