Coast Guard: Watch For Rip Currents In Lake Michigan
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The U.S. Coast Guard warns you to be careful this weekend if you're planning to do any playing in Lake Michigan.
As WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports, for most beaches along Lake Michigan, this weekend is the last big hurrah, and usually the last weekend there will be any lifeguards on duty.
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The Coast Guard says this summer, 43 people have drowned on Lake Michigan, including five people just last weekend.
Those five included a 44-year-old Wheeling man who was swimming on a beach in southwest Michigan this past Sunday , a 14-year-old Evanston boy who died while swimming near Gillson Park in Wilmette, and a student from Valparaiso University who drowned off a beach in Indiana, according to reports from the Daily Herald and other sources.
Rip currents are believed to be responsible for many of the drowning, when people get caught in them and panic.
Experts say the best thing to do is go with the flow of the current, and swim along the shoreline until you are free of the rip current, then swim safely back to shore.
