Easily overlooked beach safety hazards
OCEAN CITY, Md. – With summer in full swing, residents and tourists alike are flocking to the beach in Ocean City.
Between the sand, the surf, and the sun, there are some serious safety hazards at the beach that can be easily overlooked.
Ocean City Beach Patrol Captain Butch Arbin said, even though you or your kids might love playing in the sand, the sand is nothing to play with: “This sand will actually give you serious second degree burns on the bottom of your feet. And especially the adults may have shoes on, not thinking about their kids that are barefoot.” He continued, saying, “They just have to be aware that the sand can be hot, because you walk halfway across, and now the heat’s building up in your feet. Now it’s burning you. You’ve got halfway back or halfway to go, you’re kind of stuck in the middle.”
“People always talk about sharks, but more people die in the United States every year from collapsing sand holes than they do from sharks…and with sand, it actually fills in around you. So when you breath in and breath out, it fills in. So with every breathe you can take less and less breathe. So you’re being suffocated even though your head’s above the sand,” said Arbin.
Captain Arbin said people don’t realize how dangerous digging holes and tunneling can be: “We see big problems in Ocean City once we go off duty, because people come out on the beach and we’re not there to monitor them. So we’ve seen holes where a person who’s 6 feet tall will be below the surface of the sand. And it’s just too dangerous.”
Another easily overlooked hazard: beach umbrellas that haven’t been properly secured. They can get picked up by the wind–turning them into dangerous projectiles.
Arbin gave guidelines for setting up an umbrella properly: “The length of an adult forearm, that’s how deep you want to put it in. You want to tilt it into the wind, so the wind is pushing it in, not pulling it out. And if it’s a gusty day and it’s not safe to have the umbrella up, they need to take it down.”
Beachgoer Brooklyn Drimmal erred on the side safety Monday, deciding not set up his beach umbrella because of the wind. He said, “Umbrellas are a big thing if they’re not secured well. Just have to make sure that you either get them in deep enough or don’t set them up.”
Captain Arbin said, if you do decide to go in the water, make sure there are life guards on duty: “10:00am to 5:30pm is when we’re guarding the beach, so please stay out of the ocean before 10 o’clock and after 5:30. Just remember our saying: keep your feet in the sand till the life guard’s in the stand. It will save your life.”
Captain Arbin said that the proper way to set up a beach umbrella is by rocking it back and forth, instead of trying to jam it into the sand or twirling it around.
He said that with an active hurricane season predicted, they’re anticipating being very busy with rip-currents in the water.
