Police and fire personnel respond to the scene at Lighthouse Beach, where a swimmer went missing Sunday afternoon. Credit: Jorgensen Metzner
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Joe Flanagan was on a typical Sunday afternoon walk with his son-in-law and grandson on a warm and sunny summer day when they decided to take a stroll to nearby Lighthouse Beach.
He quickly noticed the choppy waters, high waves and the red “no swimming” flag flying from the lifeguard stand. But he was “shocked” to see about 200 people on the beach, with a few dozen in the water anyway. Evanston lakefront supervisors had declared Lighthouse Beach too dangerous for swimming on Sunday morning, so they mounted the red flag and dismissed lifeguards for the day.
Most people were standing in shallow waters only up to their calves or thighs, according to Flanagan, a longtime Evanston resident and business owner. But he soon saw a group of two teenage girls, a woman and a man who were “kind of out there” – about 150 to 200 feet into the water – and appeared to be “in trouble,” he said.
Body recovered from lake, ‘potentially matching the description’ of Evanston missing swimmer
Body recovered from lake, ‘potentially matching the description’ of Evanston missing swimmer
July 6th, 2024
The four swimmers were all the way on the south end of the beach and nearing the end of the break wall that extends into the lake. At that point, Flanagan swam out, pulled the two girls back to shore and told his son-in-law to call 911.
He said he immediately went back out to help the woman in, who had floated beyond the break wall because “the tide [was] kind of pulling her out.” As he pulled her to shore, he saw the man “probably 10 feet west of her.”
“I drop the third girl off. I’m swimming out there looking for him at the last place where he was beyond the girders. It just shows you how fragile life is,” Flanagan recalled. “I never found him. I was swimming for two or five or 10 minutes, just floating around calling his name, and I never heard him or saw him. Within 10 minutes, there were helicopters, drones, boats, divers. It was crazy the amount of action going on.”
At the time, with winds and waves much higher than average at Lighthouse Beach, there was likely a rip current carrying these swimmers farther out into Lake Michigan, according to Flanagan, who said Fire Department officials mentioned this, as well.
Rip currents cause most drowning deaths and lifeguard rescue operations at swimming beaches, both in the Great Lakes and in oceans, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA). These currents “most commonly form at low spots or breaks in sandbars and near structures such as groins, jetties, and piers.
A stretch of foam, seaweed or opaque/”muddy” water going out to sea (this occurs because of sand being pulled away from the shoreline).
Channels of “churning” or choppy water that look different from the surrounding waters.
Breaks in the incoming wave pattern.
“Look for a break in the incoming wave pattern.” Credit: Tom Herrington/Stevens Institute of Technology
“Look for a channel of churning, choppy water,” NOAA says. Credit: Wendy Carey/Delaware Sea Grant
“Look for a break in the incoming wave pattern.” Credit: Tom Herrington/Stevens Institute of Technology
“Look for a channel of churning, choppy water,” NOAA says. Credit: Wendy Carey/Delaware Sea Grant
“Look for a channel of churning, choppy water,” NOAA says. Credit: Wendy Carey/Delaware Sea Grant
Importantly, these currents do not pull swimmers under the surface – they just carry them away from shore. Swimmers should also try to stay as far away from jetties or break walls as possible to avoid areas of highest risk, according to NOAA.
If you do find yourself caught in a rip current, you should try to relax and wait until you float out of it. Never try to swim against the current, but you can attempt to swim parallel to the shore until you reach safety, as the diagram below shows.
Credit: Academy of Surfing Instructors
“People have got to be smart. This is a big, rugged body of water that is really strong,” Flanagan said. “When you’re in that girder, that’s got to complicate people’s ability to swim if they’re in that situation.”
Wednesday marks three days since the 41-year-old man went missing. An extensive search-and-rescue operation coordinated by the Evanston Fire Department over the last two days deployed sonar equipment and helicopters, which did not turn anything up.
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At this point, “we are doing both surface and shoreline searches for all of the Evanston lakefront, looking with firefighters in the water with Marine 21 [the EFD water rescue boat] and drones and personal watercraft,” said Fire Department Division Chief Kim Kull. “All three of those assets are deployed up and down the lakefront, and we also have lifeguards doing searches on the shoreline.”
This process will continue until first responders find him, according to Kull, but “we have not been able to locate that person” yet.
Flanagan thanked EFD for its extensive search effort.
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