Pensecola Beach

[Sandles2Sidearm]

And the surrounding areas. I recieved an email a while back from a USLA rep, seeking information about my department and went into detail about the woes of his situation.

He said that the area around Pensecola has had in excess of forty drownings a year for the past several years.

This number is astounding and I was wondering if there were any LEO or Fire service people that could give me some information about this area.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

[FedAgent]

I was stationed on in the panhandle of Florida in the USCG. You have to visit and see for yourself the beauty of the beaches. The locals are traditional southerners. The iced tea is sweet. And the beer is cold. The drowning situation you mentioned comes in spurts. There is a double sandbar situation on the Gulf Coast of Florida which creates a ferocious riptide when conditions are favorable. Those conditions are most favorable during an ebb tide with wind out of the south. There is a flag system that many people ignore. The local authorities do their best to keep people out of the water during a "red flag"; but sometimes to no avail. The most vulnerable folks are the ones not familiar with the ocean's behavior. Usually, the people we would rescue or recover, were from inland states that have only ever operated a watercraft or swum in a lake. We (USCG) would literally do something called a "24 hour termination of use", in accordance with the Federal Boating Regulations, if we deemed someone operating a vessel or swimming to be in danger due to weather conditions. The Florida Marine Patrol's boats are not usually more than 21 feet (in NW Florida); and their primary mission is/was inland waters. And they didn't like to terminate anyone's use unless they could arrest them and impound their boat. I suppose that was due to civil liability reasons. We definitely pissed a few folks off; but it was for their own safety. We didn't care about being sued. You have to have "permission" to sue the feds.

If you have not been to NW Florida, I urge you to visit. The cost of living is low and the area is simply fun. The snow white beaches are due to a quartz deposit on the continental shelf that continually erodes and washes onto shore...