VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) – Red flags line the Virginia Beach Oceanfront due to dangerous rip currents.
“The lifeguards were saying usually, they will let people out with fins and a board, but they won’t let anyone now because it’s rough,” Elaine Hill from Maryland said.
You could see the waves crashing hard into the shore.
“The water is still rough. Still have these high winds and fast-moving currents,” said Tom Gill, chief of the Virginia Beach Lifesaving Service.
The recent storms kicked up the winds, causing the high risk of rip currents.
It forced lifeguard to keep people out of the ocean.
“We’ve kept people completely out of the water,” Gill said.
A little disappointing for Elaine and Bernard Hill, who came down to take a dip into the ocean.
“We come all the way here to go swimming, at least what I come here,” Bernard Hill said.” There is a swimming pool, but I don’t like swimming pools. I like the ocean.
Said Elaine Hill: “He comes to come right in the ocean. That is what he comes for.”
Some beachgoers we spoke to are finding other ways to have fun.
“We are going to hang out in the sand,” said Eric Pigford of Philadelphia. “Going to make some sand castles.”
Coming into Saturday, Gill said the conditions may get slightly better.
“Over the next couple of days, (when) this wind dies down, it will be much better, but the rip current risk will still be pretty high,” he said.
Gill said lifeguards might be more lenient Saturday.
“Tomorrow you might see us go to the knee to waist deep and let people touch it and get in there,” Gill said, “but it’s going to be an hour-by-hour assessment.”
