A good swimmer, Thomas Kenning waded into the Lake Michigan water that he’d already decided was too treacherous at Porter Beach. Just hours before, he’d explained why to his 9-year-old daughter — told her about the high waves and the rip currents.
But on that day, June 27, 2022, he and his family heard a teen-aged girl cry for help in the surf.
So Kenning, a 38-year-old Florida teacher who’d grown up in the region and who’d written books about nature and abandoned boats in the Southeast, waded in. He got close to the girl.
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“They were just inches apart,” his mother, Sharon Kenning, of Valparaiso, recalls of her memories from shore. “They kept reaching and reaching.”
Then the water dragged him in. Sharon saw her son drift further out, but then a wave washed over him. The girl would be rescued. Thomas Kenning would drown.
While all of this was going on, Sharon, who was minding her young grandkids, says, “I stood on the beach and looked for anything (that would float).”
Nothing.
Her husband ran to the nearby pavilion at Indiana Dunes State Park to look for a life ring.
Nothing.
With one toss of a life ring, Sharon feels, her son could have saved the girl and kept his own life. The family’s loss became the impetus for a new Indiana law that took effect July 1 . At least one life ring must be placed at every public access beach and pier along Indiana’s Lake Michigan coast.
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It comes as a separate drowning, also in 2022, led two mourning families to donate remote-controlled rescue devices known as EMILY this summer to boost the lifeguards’ efforts at beaches in New Buffalo and St. Joseph.
Advocates cite many more gaps in water safety yet to fill.
The Town of Porter hung a life ring last summer at its beach, where Kenning drowned, near the entrance to get a jump start on Indiana’s law. And, on June 23 this year, one month after the ring was properly reinstalled and dedicated with a state-required weather-proof case, the life ring helped to save another girl from possibly drowning.
Two girls, in fact, were struggling in the water, the town of Porter’s police department reported. Beachgoers on shore banded together to pull the first girl to shore. Then they noticed the second girl about 50 yards out. An adult took the life ring, swam out to her and pulled her towards shore.
"I hate to admit I was skeptical of the life rings,” Porter Fire Chief Jay Craig responded in a statement after the rescue. “Thinking the worst, they would be stolen, vandalized, or not used correctly. Very happy to admit I was wrong.”
Can more be done?
While a few more rings are now being added to Indiana’s shores, Dave Benjamin says the Lake Michigan coast has a “long, long way to go, especially in Michigan,” before the public officials adequately guard visitors from the water’s deadly waves and rip currents.
As co-founder and co-executive director of the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project , he keeps track of the annual drownings across Lake Michigan and pushes for solutions. A single rescue device isn’t enough. Rather, he says, it’s a multi-prong approach: Beachgoers should know how to swim and have access to rescue equipment and safety signage and lifeguards at every beach.
Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, he says, argues that there should be a lifeguard at any public beach that has a parking lot and a bathroom and charges admission. Park and government officials often cite that they can’t afford lifeguards, but Benjamin feels the parking fees should make it feasible.
He’s disappointed in how $570,000 was spent to switch Grand Haven State Park from water safety flags to a colored light beacon, which can be quickly adjusted based on the latest National Weather Service data.
The Grand Haven system features 12 towers with lights along the beach and sidewalk that also have life rings, which contact 911 and park rangers whenever a ring is pulled, the Holland Sentinel reported . The towers also play pre-recorded audio warnings to alert beachgoers about changing conditions and emergencies. They have emergency phones to reach 911 and trigger a response.
Benjamin argues that the money could have been better spent on employing lifeguards and questions the effectiveness of a light on bright, sunny days.
Law doesn't apply in Indiana Dunes
Indiana’s new law, Senate Enrolled Act 253 , doesn’t apply at the state-owned Indiana Dunes State Park , where Kenning’s dad couldn’t find a life ring. In fact, state officials pushed back on the bill, and the only way that legislators could pass it was to give the park an exception, according to Evelyn Hernandez, a Beverly Shores resident who helped to seek the bill.
The law doesn’t name the park but, rather, says it doesn’t apply to state property “where swimming is prohibited or where a life guard is on duty.”
The park prohibits swimming at the beach unless a lifeguard is on duty.
Hernandez disagrees with the argument that, by posting a life ring around the clock, it would give the wrong impression that the beach was open to swimming outside of lifeguard hours.
Holly Lawson, communications director for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources , says that the park’s lifeguards are already equipped with life rings (aka, ring buoys) while on duty. The guards also have access to rescue cans (flotation devices with handles), rescue tubes, throw bags, rescue boards, backboards, a Zodiac inflatable boat, whistles, megaphones and handheld radios, Lawson says.
The new law also doesn’t apply to the 15 miles of coastline that are part of the Indiana Dunes National Park , because those are governed by federal regulations.
But, last summer, the national park did install one life ring each at its Porter Beach (in addition to the town’s life ring) and at its Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk . That came about as advocates were pushing for the state bill and speaking with park officials.
"We are analyzing the effectiveness of the life rings at Porter and Portage Lakefront to determine if we should add them to other beaches at the national park,” Bruce Rowe, spokesman for Indiana Dunes National Park, says. “We continue to look at ways we can make a trip to Lake Michigan a safer one. We urge the public to contact us or go to sources like the National Weather Service to learn if there are dangerous conditions in Lake Michigan. People should never swim in the lake when there are breaking waves and children need to be closely supervised even when conditions are calm.”
Counting up life rings
The national park’s life ring at Porter Beach is toward the east, on the way to the state park.
And the Town of Porter just recently approved adding another life ring west of Porter Beach, with money donated by a homeowners association, Police Chief Todd Allen says.
Prior to the new law, Benjamin says, Michigan City had 11 life rings at its pier and beach. Gary had 26 life rings, though he says there are plans to upgrade them.
Beverly Shores has three rings. The town installed them last year as Hernandez pushed for the state bill. She’d pitched the idea to the town council, both as a resident and as a survivor.
On June 12, 2012, she and her boyfriend, 32-year-old Leonel Dominguez of New York City, headed to one of the Beverly Shores beaches. On impulse, they picked up a round inflatable from a store, and they sat together on the shallow water to watch the sunset.
But an offshore wind pushed them a quarter mile out. Dominguez jumped in the water to try to kick them back to shore, but, shocked by the cold water, he tried to scramble back on board. The floatie flipped and blew off in the wind. Both of them slipped into the water, then were sucked in by a rip current. Dominguez, a good swimmer, drowned. A bystander rescued Hernandez.
It inspired Hernandez to lead an effort seeking a similar state bill that requires life rings at publicly accessible points along Lake Michigan in Illinois. It passed two to three years ago. She then helped to drive Indiana’s legislative effort, forming and leading the Lake Michigan Waterfront Safety Initiative, with testimonials from several other families of drowning victims.
Worth the cost?
Out of Indiana’s 45 miles of coastline, 26 miles are public. If life rings were posted at every quarter mile of public access, which advocates recommend, they estimate that there could be a total of 104 life rings.
The state requires that each life ring be attached to 100 feet of rope and be placed inside of a weather-proof case.
Advocates say the typical cost for a life ring, case and rope is roughly $600, plus the cost of a post, cement and labor to install it. By contrast, they estimate that an all-out effort to recover one drowned body in the lake, involving the U.S. Coast Guard and helicopter searches, can reach $500,000.
Sharon Kenning credits a family friend, Lynn Jaymes, with initiating the effort toward Indiana’s new life ring law at a time when it was difficult for the Kennings to speak.
Now she echoes what advocates have been saying about the Great Lakes beach safety.
“We teach kids about stop, drop and role,” she says of the familiar safety lesson that firefighters often deliver. “We require sprinkler systems. But we invite people to beautiful beaches, and there’s nothing there (for safety).”
EMILY drone to help guards
Kory Ernster, 22, and Emily MacDonald, 19, drowned in two- to three-foot waves at South Beach in South Haven on Aug. 8, 2022. There were among 12 drownings in the nearly 20 years that the beach has gone without lifeguards, Benjamin says.
While disappointed by the lack of South Haven lifeguards, the two sets of parents turned their grief into action for beaches that do have guards. They donated a motorized flotation device that gives lifeguards an extra edge on rescues at New Buffalo Beach and Silver Beach County Park in St. Joseph.
“It’s just a coincidence that it’s named EMILY, and Emily was the beautiful girl that fell victim to drowning on that day, but it just works out to be a perfect tribute,” Stephen Ernster, father of Kory, told WNDU during a presentation in June at Silver Beach as lifeguards trained with EMILY.
EMILY, or Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard , is a remote-controlled drone that powers through waves and surf to reach a victim. It can speed up to 23 mph through the whitecaps and quickly reach a victim, who can then grab ahold of it and hang on for help.
It gets to a swimmer faster than a person, especially when seconds count.
It takes two lifeguards to use it for a full rescue. One guard comes off of the watch tower and sets EMILY in the water, then swims out to the distressed swimmer. The other guard stays in the tower and runs the remote controls. Ultimately, the guard in the water pulls the distressed swimmer back to shore. EMILY isn’t strong enough to tow someone.
Invented in 2010, EMILY drones have been used for several years along the east and west coasts of the U.S., but, Benjamin says, this is among its first appearances along Lake Michigan.
New Buffalo Park Director Kristen D’Amico says lifeguards have been training regularly with the device, adding, “EMILY has performed excellently and has proven to be a very valuable asset at New Buffalo Beach.”
Find columnist Joseph Dits on Facebook at SBTOutdoorAdventures or 574-235-6158 or jdits@sbtinfo.com .
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: New life ring law and rescue drones help, but Lake Michigan swimmers still vulnerable
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