By Donald Wittkowski
Hurricane Maria was swirling hundreds of miles away off the coast of North Carolina, but Hannah and Elijah McCready felt the effects of the storm while splashing in the surf Tuesday morning in Ocean City.
Elijah, 9, described how the waves knocked him down a few times when he was standing in only knee-deep water at the Eighth Street beach. His 10-year-old sister said she had to fight the back-and-forth flow of the choppy surf.
“When you stand up, it pushes you back a little bit and then it pushes you in,” Hannah said.
Their mother, Kayla McCready, kept an eye on the children while they played in the water, absolutely forbidding them to venture out any deeper than their knees.
Treacherous surf and a high risk of rip tides have Jersey Shore beachgoers being extra cautious – particularly if they have children – as Maria churns north up the coast Tuesday and Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane packing sustained winds of 75 mph. The hurricane is expected to stay well offshore of New Jersey, but forecasters say it will continue to generate rough waves.
Maria’s journey up the coast coincides with the time of year when Ocean City and other shore communities no longer have their beaches protected by lifeguards. However, summer-like weather and unseasonably warm water at the end of September continue to attract visitors to the shore for one last fling at the beach.
Over the weekend, three people in Ocean and Monmouth counties died after being pulled from the dangerous surf.
Ocean City has posted a message on its website urging beachgoers to use “extreme caution,” swim only in shallow water and heed any potential warnings as surf conditions change.
“When Maria’s swell begins to arrive, it will be quite obvious that conditions are dangerous,” city spokesman Doug Bergen said. “But it’s important for individuals and families to respect the power of the ocean every day. While it may be tempting to take advantage of the last of the warm water, it’s just not a good idea to swim at unprotected beaches.”
Kayla McCready, of Bloomsburg, Pa., who was taking a brief vacation with her children on Tuesday, said she had been following the weather alerts to keep abreast of the surf conditions. She stressed the potential dangers to her children before they took one step into the water, she noted.
“I told them not to go out far,” she said.
The children’s grandmother will take charge of Hannah and Elijah on Wednesday when McCready returns to work. Both children are on vacation because the schools in their small Pennsylvania town, about 40 miles from Wilkes-Barre, are closed for the week for an agricultural fair.
“We were a little bit nervous coming here for vacation because of the rough surf,” McCready said. “But I told them about the rip tides. They know they’re not supposed to go in deep.”
McCready also instructed her children on how to escape from a rip tide if they are caught in one by swimming parallel to the shore instead of trying to fight the current head-on and becoming exhausted.
Other Ocean City beachgoers were wary of the strong surf on Tuesday. Mike and Cheryl Smith, of Medford, N.J., stayed close to their 3-year-old granddaughter, Kenzie, while she was frolicking in shallow water at the Eighth Street beach.
“She’s not walking 20 feet away from me,” Mike Smith said. “After everything I heard on the news about rip tides and undertow, she’s not getting very far from me.”
Pint-sized Kenzie dipped her toes in the surf and went out no deeper than her ankles. Her grandfather was standing next to her.
Although her grandparents were concerned about the big waves, Kenzie had only one complaint about the ocean.
“It’s cold,” she said.
