Florida is a popular travel destination, drawing millions of tourists each year with its immaculate beaches and turquoise waters. However, some beaches may have poor circumstances or concealed risks beneath their gorgeous veneer.
This article will provide information on new studies that pinpoint particular Florida beaches you might want to think twice about visiting.
According to a Travel Lens analysis from 2023, 70% of the deadliest beaches in America are in Florida. That is a significant risk, particularly for tourists who are unfamiliar with which beaches are dubious.
We’ll discuss which beaches to avoid and offer alternatives for a safer and more pleasurable trip based on variables including water quality, safety concerns, and environmental difficulties.
Panama City Beach
Over the course of just nine days in the summer of 2023, seven people lost their lives at Panama City Beach. Remarkably, all three of them passed away in the same weekend. Rip currents are what cause this Florida beach to be especially hazardous for tourists.
The Chief Meteorologist of News 13, Ross Whitley, described rip currents as “fast, narrow moving channels of water that will pull you out away from the shore… That means no matter how well you swim you can be caught off guard by a rip” in an interview with Nexstar Media Inc. You can be moved through the water by these currents twice as quickly as an Olympic swimmer, so in a matter of seconds, you could be football fields from the coast.
Palm Beach
There are a lot of marine creatures that can harm you, and jellyfish are among those that can cause excruciating agony. They come to Palm Beach, Florida in huge numbers, thus there’s a very high chance of getting stung by one of these guys.
In the peak season, people come into close contact with the stinging jellyfish population in Palm Beach on a nearly daily basis.
According to lifeguards at Palm Beach in 2022, they treat up to thirty victims for jellyfish stings each day. Since jellyfish can have tentacles up to 121 feet long, it can be challenging to identify them in the water. When you do bump into one, though, it’s not fun.
On Palm Beach, the Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish species is very prevalent. They sting very painfully, and because their umbrella-shaped bell colors blend in with the ocean’s tint, they are particularly hard to spot in the water.
Siesta Beach
You wouldn’t anticipate the danger that lurks along Siesta Beach’s shoreline. It originates from lightning, not from the water at all, nor from severe tides or sharks. Although it may seem like an improbable cause, lightning strikes on this Florida beach have killed people for decades.
A lightning strike to the head killed two persons on Siesta Key back in 1991. Several additional persons were knocked to the ground by the force of the bolt when it struck the area. A survivor told the Tampa Bay Times about the event as follows:
“All of sudden, there was a big boom and you just felt your hair stand on end. It knocked all of us down.”
Nor have there been any fewer fatal lightning strikes in recent years. According to The Florida Times-Union, a 33-year-old man on Siesta Beach became Florida’s 501st fatal lightning strike victim in 2018.
A few years later, in 2020, lightning struck this Florida beach, seriously injuring the adolescent and leaving him without a pulse. He miraculously made it through, although his recuperation is far from complete.
Cocoa Beach
It can be frightening to consider that a shark could take you below the surface when you’re swimming in the sea. But when you’re on a beach vacation and attempting to identify dolphins from the shore, that could be the last thing on your mind.
Unfortunately, swimming in Florida’s Cocoa Beach carries the risk of experiencing this terrifying experience. According to EssentiallySports, after New Smyrna Beach, Cocoa Beach had the second-highest rate of shark attack events in Florida in 2023 (7.57 out of 10).
When swimming at Cocoa Beach in 2023, 12-year-old Magnolia Woodhead ran into one of these water animals viciously. That day was going well until, without warning, she felt the worst nightmare of any beachgoer: razor-sharp shark fangs sinking into her thigh.
Magnolia’s tale fortunately has a happy conclusion; she survived three shark attacks but required fifty stitches. This Florida beach’s choppy waters can be fatal in addition to the sharks. Ten or so years ago, strong currents at Cocoa Beach carried a 66-year-old man away from the shore, where he perished.
Ormond Beach
One of the deadliest beaches in the country is Ormond Beach, as the name has come to suggest. Ormond Beach is particularly unsafe for swimming because it accumulates many of the many risks that might arise at beaches around Florida. The first thing to be aware of is the strong rip currents that occur in Ormond Beach.
A man who was on vacation in the vicinity with his wife drowned in a rip current at this beach a few years ago, in 2022. It was thought that because of how powerful the waves were, he may have hurt himself in the water and been unable to swim. A 7-year-old child who suffered the same destiny two years prior experienced the same thing.
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