A Chicago woman and her 6-year-old son narrowly escaped drowning in Lake Michigan on Tuesday while swimming off the beach in Ogden Dunes.

Indiana Conservation Officer Matt Schurr attributed the near drowning to strong rip currents which pulled the woman and boy far off shore.

According to a statement released late Tuesday, the incident occurred at an unspecified time in the afternoon. The woman and boy—the latter wearing a life jacket—were playing in the waves approximately 20 to 30 feet from shore when the mother noticed her son being pulled out into the lake. She swam out to him, the statement said, but on reaching the child noticed that they were a long distance from shore and were being pulled fast to the west.

The woman, growing fatigued, called for help, and the boy’s father together with a family friend swam out to them and managed just barely to rescue mother and son, the statement said.

“All four people were completely exhausted by the time they made it to safety,” the statement said. “All four subjects were checked out by EMS and the family friend was taken to Porter hospital complaining of neck pain. The two men both stated that the power of the current and the pounding of the waves completely wore them out.”

“These people were very lucky today,” Schurr said. “This could have very easily been a catastrophe times four. All we can do is warn people to stay out of the water on days when the waves are high and the rip currents grow strong.”

Ogden Dunes Police and Fire, assisted by the Portage Fire Department, responded to the scene.

The municipal beach in Ogden Dunes is not patrolled by lifeguards. The woman and her family are renting a house in Ogden Dunes for the week, the statement said.

Rip currents were blamed for the drowning deaths of two Chicago boys earlier this summer, both at beaches unpatroled by lifeguards in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (INDU). On July 13 DeVante Jackson, 14, drowned off Kemil Beach after leaving the beach at Indiana Dunes State Park (IDSP) when strong rip currents forced its closure and moving to Kemil Beach. Jackson’s body was found on July 16. On Aug. 3 Raphael Palomar drowned off Porter Beach, again after leaving the beach at IDSP when high waves and rip currents forced its closure. Palomar’s body was found on Aug. 5.

Another near drowning occurred at Dunbar Beach in INDU on July 9 when four swimmers, three boys and an adult, were apparently caught in a rip current. All managed to reach shore without assistance but the adult was subsequently hospitalized.

Rip currents form in the lake when a strong north wind pushes large waves to shore. Those waves can begin to “stack up,” get trapped between the beach and sand bars off shore, until they “rip” through a weak spot in a sand bar. Then the trapped water rushes through the newly formed breach and creates a narrow but strong current back out into the lake, and anyone caught in that rip current will be carried out with it.

The best, sometimes the only way, to escape a rip current is to let it take you out until it weakens, then swim parallel to the beach, find an area clear of the rip current, and swim back to shore. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), rip currents can move up to eight feet per second, “faster than an Olympic swimmer and can easily overpower a victim.”

NOAA advises individuals always to swim at lifeguard-protected beaches, never to swim alone, and to speak to on-duty lifeguards about rip currents and other expected water hazards.

The National Weather Service office in the Chicago region, which includes Northwest Indiana, has begun to issue rip-current outlooks, and at 10:50 a.m. Tuesday advised of an increased risk of rip currents along the Lake Michigan shoreline through the evening. Visit its website at www.crh.noaa.gov/lot

Posted 8/20/2008