Deadly rip currents along Patrick Air Force Base could have claimed five lives last month if not for quick thinking and fast action by longtime local lifeguard Wyatt Werneth, 51, who just happened to have with him a new type of flotation device called a rescue tube made of a material similar to Crocs shoes.
It turns out Werneth, former head of the county ocean lifeguards, is vice president and national spokesman for LIFE Rescue Project, a group dedicated to providing emergency lifesaving equipment on public beaches. Formed in January, LIFE has so far installed a number of rescue stations in Cape Canaveral and Cocoa Beach, with the offer to supply them throughout Brevard.
A rescue station consists of a pole and a sign with a LIFE Rescue Tube attached to it. The poles are either located at the beach access or down on the beach, about where a lifeguard tower would go. The rescue tubes are meant to be used by beachgoers to help others in trouble in the water.
It was Friday, April 14 when Werneth got a call from his wife, who was out shopping in Satellite Beach, that swimmers were in trouble. He had one of the new, elongated rescue tubes in his car because he had been servicing a LIFE station and he raced down A1A to the scene.
When he got to the beach, bystanders told him people were drowning.
“I got my tube, took my shirt off and, as I come over the dunes, I saw a group of swimmers [struggling in the water]’’ Werneth said.
According to later accounts, the crowd he saw was four Marietta, Georgia high school Junior ROTC cadets and a chaperone who were caught by a powerful rip current.
Two swimmers got in trouble initially and the others went out to help, but all of them ended up swallowing sea water and needing to be rescued.
“I don’t know who is drowning, who’s not drowning or what’s going on,” said Werneth. “There was one person who was lethargic and I had to get the tube under him and keep his head above water. There were people grappling all over the place in the water. Those who went out to assist got into trouble because they didn’t have flotation.
“That gets back to what we’re trying to do with our project and mission. Had I come up 10 minutes later or without flotation, it would have been very difficult [to rescue the swimmers].”
LIFE Rescue Tubes are a variation on the “cans” you see lifeguards on Bay Watch use.
“It’s soft but it’s still stiff so I can defend myself [from flailing drowning victims] and it doesn’t hurt like the can did,” Werneth said. The tubes have grips on all sides for victims and rescuers to hold onto.
Life Rescue Project President Mike Rogers, founder of worldwide lifeguard equipment supplier eLifeguard.com in Rockledge, consulted with Werneth when he established the beach safety nonprofit.
“We both had the idea of putting lifesaving devices on the beach. We put our heads together and came up with a LIFE Rescue Station,” Rogers said.
“It amazes me that most if not all health departments require a flotation device for swimming pools but not for the beach. I think that’s coming to an end because that is just not an acceptable status.” There are plans for a total 41 LIFE Rescue Stations in Cocoa Beach in addition to 24 already installed in Cape Canaveral.
After Werneth pulled the drowning swimmers from the water on that fateful Friday last month, all five victims were transported to Cape Canaveral hospital where they kept under observation overnight. Released the next day, they were able to go on with their lives.
Cape Canaveral public works services deputy director Josh Surprenant, a surfer himself, is helping coordinate installation of the LIFE Rescue Stations. He says beachgoers are grateful for the program.
“The most common response I hear is, ‘Why don’t we already have these?’”
Surprenant says the stations are not meant to encourage false heroics but to save lives in emergencies. “We saw it as a way to make all the beaches safer. We want to make sure we don’t have [the type of tragedy] that Wyatt just prevented.”