Grand Haven State Park is one of the most popular beaches in Michigan. In the past, they used flags to tell people the water conditions. That’s changed. Eight towers with colored lights will now advise swimmers of potential risks.
Beachgoers were out and enjoying a day at the beach, but they noticed the new warning system near the water's edge. Kris Schuitema says, “I think it is better, especially as the weather shifts. We'll know right away if our kids are safe or not.”
The park installed eight orange solar-powered towers along the beach, each with water-condition lights on top and a life ring that will alert park officials and automatically connect to 911 if deployed.
“This system is designed to alert emergency responders while somebody is focused on helping somebody in the water,” said Andrew LundBorg, park supervisor. He says the water-condition lights are connected to the National Weather Service and are controlled by park staff so beachgoers can be warned faster if conditions change.
LundBorg says, “Staff here on-site local with a mobile device or from a computer, or even remote control, ... were able to push a button with that press of the button; within seconds, all eight lights will update to current conditions.”
The lights work just like the flags: red light means high hazard, yellow light means medium hazard, green means low hazard and double red means water is closed.
Gregg King, who was at the beach, says, “It's automated; it's intuitive. I think it's great for just the safety and the general awareness of like we were talking about before, rip tides and when you get out of the water and the double reds and things like that.”
Besides the warning towers, four blue emergency towers are now along the sidewalk, each with loudspeakers and a camera that can see the beach and a direct line to 911.
“We really prioritize visitor safety coming in and understanding that Lake Michigan can change in a matter of minutes sometimes,“ said LundBorg.
For Staci Hovinga, she is just glad there is added safety for her kids at the beach, saying, “I think that the real-time data will be really helpful for families using the beach and, yeah, be able to keep our kids safe as they swim or need to get out of the water.”
The park will leave the current flagpoles in place and will only fly the flags if the new light system is down.
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