ANN ARBOR, MI (AP)-- An effort to prevent people from drowning due to dangerous currents along the Great Lakes includes installing kits with life-saving aids including a ring buoy at 10 public beaches along Lake Michigan.
Michigan Sea Grant announced Monday that kits will be installed this summer. Additional support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expected to put similar equipment on beaches across the Great Lakes region over the next two years.
A database assembled by Michigan Sea Grant and the National Weather Service says 138 swimmers drowned in the Great Lakes over the past 12 years including 69 people along Lake Michigan in incidents blamed at least in part on rip currents and other currents.
Dangerous currents are common along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.