The high season on the beaches of the province of Alicante could not have started worse. Four drowned in three days and two more people who had to be treated by the emergency services is the balance of the weekend in which, traditionally, the tourist summer opens and the lifeguard services begin to operate in the sandy beaches and coves of the Costa Blanca. The rising temperatures, which have caused massive attendance of bathers on the beaches, and the medium strength of the Levante wind during the weekend, which has not generated a storm, but did agitate the sea with rip currents, can be the main causes of this accumulation of accidents.
The first death occurred on the same Saturday, at 6:15 p.m., in La Fustera cove in Benissa, a town located in the north of the province. SAMU troops came to the rescue of two people who had suffered great difficulties returning to shore. One of them, a 60-year-old man, presented symptoms of extreme fatigue and muscle exhaustion and recovered after being treated and discharged on site. The other, for whom no information has been provided, died before being assisted.
Monday marked a tragic day, with three more deaths due to drowning. At around 3 p.m., the lifeguards working on the beach of La Marina in Elche, in the southern third of the Alicante coast, pulled out of the water the body of a man in his 50s and of Czech nationality who could have suffered a heart attack while swimming, according to municipal sources. The rescue personnel performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation maneuvers on him until the arrival of the SAMU, which could only certify his death. The same sources indicate that, at that time, the yellow flag was flying on the beach.
At practically the same time, an 82-year-old man was rescued from the water in an unconscious state on the Arenal-Boll beach in Calpe, north of Alicante. The health personnel of a SAMU ambulance performed resuscitation techniques on him, without success, according to sources from the Emergency Information and Coordination Center (CICU) of the Generalitat Valenciana.
Two hours later, around 5:00 p.m., the SAMU attended to another bather who was rescued from the sea unconscious in the Capitan de Orihuela cove, at the southern end of Alicante, although they could not do anything to save his life. An 80-year-old man who was stabilized after appearing half-drowned at around 1 p.m. on Benidorm’s Poniente beach was able to recover. After receiving the first medical attention, he was transferred to the Marina Baixa hospital in Villajoyosa in a basic life support ambulance (BLS), according to CICU sources.
Municipal sources in Calpe, Elche and Benidorm have assured that they have had the high season lifeguard service since last Saturday. In Calpe, they indicate that they have increased surveillance with the official start of summer, while from Benidorm they point out that the tourist capital of the Costa Blanca has rescue services throughout the year, although they adapt to the occupancy of each moment, and that the highest level of attention was activated with the arrival of June. In Elche, they inaugurated the seven lifeguard posts on the beaches of the municipality on the same day, with around twenty lifeguards, a coordinator, two boat skippers, four emergency technicians, two ambulances and two jet skis. In Orihuela, the service is provided on weekends and will be extended to other days starting next June 15. On the coast of this municipality, municipal sources continue, a new lifeguard service will come into effect on July 1.
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From the Red Cross, they point to the overcrowding of the beaches, caused by high temperatures and the return currents, known as undertows, generated by the Levante wind as the main causes of the drownings over the weekend. “The sea was bad,” says José Luis Oliva, Red Cross coordinator on the beaches of Guardamar del Segura, “even if it was imperceptible at first glance.” The water that drags the Levant towards the shore “looks for places to return and produces a small river that goes inward” below the sea surface, creating “abrupt bottoms with more holes.” Olivas recommends that bathers, in this circumstance, “enter the water slowly, until it covers their waists, and if they see the sand dragging under their feet, not to continue any further.”
The State Meteorological Agency confirms that “since Friday, winds have been blowing from the Levant and Northeast on the coast of Alicante”, with special intensity on Friday. “It was decreasing over the weekend, but it still persisted with this component until yesterday, Monday.” The wind “altered the state of the sea”, with “swells on the Alicante coast and moments of strong waves on Friday. “There is still swell,” warns José Ángel Núñez, from Aemet, “which are waves that are not generated in situ, but offshore, and move to the coast, where they break as the depth decreases.” It also affects the presence of “rip currents,” which “remove water from the beach, taking it beyond the surf zone.” Neither the wind nor the waves in a situation like this “are susceptible to a meteorological warning”, but “the sea can present a certain risk.” “These are deceptive situations,” continues Núñez, “in which the state of the sea from the shore does not seem to be very adverse,” but which can present difficulties “for less expert or vulnerable bathers due to their physical condition.”
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