SWIM TRAGEDY

Our sandbars here are enticing, but they're dangerous. The quickly rising sea means currents run so hard between them and the shore that people can be swept away. That's what happened this past weekend.

A thirty-year-old army sergeant and his children were on the sandbar as the tide began to come in. They floundered in the suddenly-deep water between the beach and sandbar, but bystanders pulled the children to safety. Unfortunately, a wave knocked the father down before rescuers could get to him. They did recover his body last night when fisherman at the pier saw the current carrying it past. Not much consolation, but it does mean some closure for the family.

Drownings like this happen a lot down here. It seems the currents claim someone every few years. The lifeguards leave at four; this drowning happened shortly after. There are also signs cautioning people about the currents, but I'm not sure they're prominent or explicit enough. People don't understand that going onto the sandbars during the rising tide means they can be stranded with a rushing stream of water between them and the shore.

Thinking of the widow and her children breaks your heart.