Excessive heat watch and recent drownings have first responders warning about water danger

It’s going to get extremely hot in western Washington this weekend, topping 100 degrees in some areas. The heat wave means a lot of people will be heading to the water to cool off.

But a half-dozen drowning deaths in Washington in just the past week has first responders wanting to make sure you know how to stay safe.

Four people drowned in waters around the Puget Sound between Wednesday and Sunday, plus two others in Yakima County.

“It’s very uncharacteristic for our region. Typically we’ll have a number of drownings, but they’re spread out throughout the year. We don’t get these large clumps of people drowning in our waters all at one time,” said Sgt. Chad Schumacher with the Mercer Island Police Department marine patrol unit.

The tragedies have Mercer Island police and the U.S. Coast Guard anxious to get out the word about the dangers on the water.

“We’re not typically in the 90 degrees in the first part of June. Our water is still very cold; we still have a lot of runoff from our mountain streams that come through the Cedar River,” Schumacher said.

A quick internet search on Thursday says Lake Washington’s water temperature is about 67 degrees — but that’s just on the surface.

With help from the USCG and Mercer Island PD, KIRO7 dropped a weighed-down water thermometer tied to a rope into Lake Washington and found the water was 62 degrees.

How someone reacts varies by person, but that temperature is enough to send someone into cold water shock, no matter how good of a swimmer you are.

“You have an elevation when you dive down into the water, probably farther than you anticipate,” Schumacher said. “It’s just like a brain freeze when you eat too much ice cream. You pretty much short-circuit your brain for a little bit and you get disoriented. You immediately take in that big breath; but it’s not air, it’s water,” Schumacher said.

The U.S. Coast Guard says a lot of people are needing help this year. Lt. Alexander Cropley says USCG Station Seattle normally responds to 200 to 220 search-and-rescue cases every year.

“At this point in the year we’re just over 170 search-and-rescue cases. So we are on track to surpass any other year,” he said. The searches the Coast Guard responds to also include missing vessels.

Cropley says they are also finding people are not wearing their life jackets — or not even having them on board, which is against the law.

“At this point in the season, we’ve seen so many people not having their life jackets on board, we are talking about starting to issue written warnings,” Cropley said.

Mercer Island police say the pandemic means there’s now a major boom of new people on the water, and they’re hoping people hear their warning.

“We have a drowning, we all feel it,” Schumacher said. “It’s a stark reminder of what can happen out here,” he said.

Courtney Gray, USCG Petty Officer 2nd Class, was out on the water last Wednesday helping search for a Bellevue father who drowned.

“It’s really sad to see situations like that happen, especially when they can be prevented if people take the right precautions,” she said.

Mercer Island police say none of the people who drowned in western Washington were wearing life vests.

The U.S. Coast Guard says across the United States, half of all boating accidents involve alcohol.

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