Aug 22, 2009 3:08 am US/Eastern
Bill's Bite Raises Red Flags Across NY Beaches
Lifeguards From Jersey To Long Island Preparing For Weekend Swimmers
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Hurricane Bill over the Atlantic Ocean on Aug. 19, 2009.
AP
Hurricane Bill is raising the red flag at area beaches this weekend.
All the beaches in Queens County, Brooklyn County and Staten Island are closed to swimming Saturday.
Way off shore sits Hurricane Bill, a storm that's staying off shore but sending nastier than usual rip currents to tri-state beaches.
"It looks really dangerous," Bensonhurst resident Dana Puma said. "I'd stay out of the water."
So it's looking to be a beach weekend for sand-lovers at Rockaway, Coney Island, Manhattan, South, Midland, and Wolfe's Pond beaches, where the waters are off-limits.
"The ocean is just a powerful and unpredictable force of nature that we can't control," NYC Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe said. "We can't control it. We must respect it, and we can only do as much as we can to keep people safe."
"A girlfriend of mine died about seven years ago," Rockaway resident Joyce McDermott said. "The undertow took her. I don't even go in these waters anymore."
"If you go swimming in there, you might be saved by a lifeguard, and you might not," 11-year-old Michael Malinovsky said.
While many beachgoers knew better than to test their luck Friday, some surfers could not resist. Some staggered out feeling like they were thrown around inside a washing machine.
"The beach is closed for a reason," a lifeguard said.
Even without a hurricane to stir up trouble, rip currents have killed six New Yorkers this summer. With the danger dialed up, so are Police Patrols who say to follow the rules or your trip to the beach could be a bust in more ways than one.
Coney Island visitors say they don't want trouble, or a ticket, so they'll remain on the boardwalk or just sweat it out in the sand until the danger from Bill passes.
The Parks department, which announced the closings, said waves are expected to reach 15 feet. And if people don't stay out of the water - they could be arrested.
Bill is the first Atlantic hurricane this year after a quiet start to the season that runs from June through November. The Miami center lowered its Atlantic hurricane outlook on Aug. 6 after no named tropical storms developed in the first two months.
The revised prediction was for three to six hurricanes, with one or two becoming major storms with winds over 110 mph. Researchers at Colorado State University have also lowered their Atlantic season forecast to four hurricanes, two of them major.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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