TV Drownings Look Nothing Like The Real Thing
All last week the local Doppler gang warned us that Memorial Day weekend might be a washout.
Well, they were wrong.
Saturday and Sunday were spectacular. (OK, hot, humid and brilliantly sunny. The way a lot of us like our summer days.)
Monday morning was glorious but rain rolled in around lunchtime.
Fine. Most of us had had too much sun by then anyway.
Lifeguards were no doubt relieved too. According to WAVY TV-10, Virginia Beach lifeguards made 74 rescues this weekend. Way more than normal.
Blame it on a combination of hot temps, warmish water and sandbars that formed after the last few storms, leaving some waders trapped when the tide rolled in.
No one died. Thank God. But the CDC says 10 people a day drown in the U.S. and 20 percent of those are kids younger than 14.
It’s the second-most common way to lose a child, after car accidents.
Which reminds me, I’ve been wanting to share this piece on drowning by Mario Vittone that appeared recently in Soundings. This isn’t a public service website and I’m not about to turn it into one. But this is important.
Read it.
Read it if you live near the ocean.
Read it if you live near a lake.
Read it if you have a pool.
Read it if you have a boat.
Read it if you are ever around water.
Shoot, read it if you drink water.
Just read it.
Vittone says many kids drown within 25 yards of an adult. Why aren’t they rescued? Because most of us have watched too many dramatized drownings on TV and have no idea what a real drowning looks like.
Let’s change that.
Lifeguards - good as they are - can’t do it all.
