Why Hilton Head Island is flying red flags this week

HILTON HEAD, SC. (WTOC) - Red flags are flying at beaches on Hilton Head Island, as Hurricane Erin travels up the east coast.

Shore Beach Service made this move Monday afternoon after rip currents started to form and lifeguards had to rescue someone from the water.

Officials on the island expect these hazardous conditions to remain in the area through the end of the week and expect them to get worse as we move closer to high tide, which is at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday night.

In preparation for that, lifeguards have asked for people to stay closer to the shore than usual, and they are even whistling down people and asking them to come in if they go back knee-deep depth.

Then as the conditions worsen, they will enforce more rules in hopes of keeping people safe.

Mike Wagner with Shore Beach Service recommends that people don’t get in the water under a red flag, but also wants to remind people that his staff cannot be everywhere at once especially during this time of the year.

“It’s a time of year where most of our staff is college-aged kids. A lot of them have gone back to school, so staff is normal for this time of year, but it’s lower than it was 2-3 weeks ago. Also, we have plenty of areas that we only control with a vehicle, so we can’t be in all those places at one time. People are going to have to monitor the conditions on their own,” said Wagner.

Wagner does say they are allowing surfers to go out in these conditions because a lot of them have seen worse, but for everyone else he asks that people don’t get in the water and wait for the conditions to get better.