Mired in federal hiring delays, Assateague Island National Seashore will not have a lifeguarded beach on its Maryland side over the Fourth of July weekend, park officials said.
Instead, the Maryland beach will operate under what Superintendent Hugh Hawthorne called “response-only lifeguarding,” with one lifeguard available to respond to emergencies.
“We don’t have enough lifeguards to have a full lifeguard program out there, so we’re not calling it a lifeguarded beach,” Hawthorne told OC Today-Dispatch on Wednesday.
That marks a reversal from two months ago, when park officials reported that they expected to have a fully lifeguarded beach from mid-June through mid-August, with weekend staffing continuing through the final two weeks of August. Full staffing is 10 to 12 guards, Hawthorne said.
The lack of lifeguards this week comes after bystanders reported that multiple swimmers were caught in rip currents Tuesday afternoon at an unguarded section of beach and pulled farther into the ocean.
Brock Brungard, a firefighter/EMT from Pennsylvania, wrote on Facebook that he and others safely pulled eight swimmers from the water, including a little boy who had been swept out in the strong current.
“At that point, I was yelling for people to call 911,” he wrote, “because I knew I wasn’t getting to all of them. Lucky my girlfriend’s family jumped in and got to the father who was over 150 feet out and were able to escape the current and bring him in.”
i call BS! first off there never used to be lifegaurds at fed assateague. secondly they sell tens of thousand of visitor passes and thousands of osv passes, with only 145 allowed on at any moment in time. so stop the lying whining crying bs and learn how to spend the resources properly. Remember you work for us, I’ve watched your rangers and park personnel treat the public like shit for way to long! time for this dei superintendent to be fired! Bring in some real leadership who has respect for those who pay their salaries!