By Forrest Brown | CNN
On Good Friday 2017, Wyatt Werneth got a call from his wife, who had gone grocery shopping with their daughter: The car’s broken down. Please rescue us.
Werneth hopped in his vehicle to assist, driving by Patrick Space Force Base near Cape Canaveral, Florida. From the A1A highway, Werneth said you can see the ocean.
What he saw next was a twist of fate that led to a much more urgent kind of rescue.
“I could see someone waving in traffic as I was going by. … I pulled in to see what was going on; I had the immediate instinct that something was happening in the water,” Werneth recalled to CNN Travel.
“When I came over the berm, I did not realize what I was getting into. There were multiple people in the water.”
And they were in trouble. Very serious trouble. Rip current kind of trouble.
The scene would send chills of dread down anyone’s spine — but at least Werneth was prepared. He is an experienced lifeguard instructor and had water rescue equipment with him.
But with at least five people struggling in a vicious Atlantic rip current, how would he possibly save them all?
Crowds flock to the sea and sand of South Beach in Miami. Florida is No. 4 in drowning deaths per 100,000 people in the United States. It’s important to understand how to enjoy open water safely.(lazyllama/Adobe Stock via CNN)
The statistics are grim
The drowning statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are shocking.
In the CDC’s most recently updated numbers, an estimated 4,012 fatal unintentional drownings happen every year in the United States (including boating incidents). That is an average of 11 drowning deaths per day.
From 2016 to 2020, the states with the most drowning deaths per 100,000 people were the following:
1. Alaska
2. Hawaii
3. Louisiana
4. Florida
5. Montana (which replaces former No. 5 Mississippi)
Your odds of drowning are much, much higher than being attacked by a shark or an alligator.
World drowning statistics are even more shocking. There are an estimated 236,000 annual drowning deaths worldwide, according to the UN’s World Health Organization. That comes out to an average of 647 people per day.
And then there are the even more numerous nonfatal drownings. The CDC says people who survive a drowning incident have a range of outcomes: “From no injuries to very serious injuries or permanent disability.”
The tragedy is many of these deaths and injuries are preventable, experts say. What can you do to enjoy the water — be it ocean, river, lake or swimming pool — safely and not join the ranks of drowning deaths? Turns out, a lot.
Men jump into the waters of the Bosphorus at the Anatolian side, also known as the Asian side, of Istanbul. Males around the world have a higher drowning risk than that of females.(Moe Zoyari/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN)
Who is most at risk?
Knowing who is likely to drown is critical. At-risk groups need the most attention. In the …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
