Hurricane Arthur may have avoided direct contact with Delaware, but it’s still affecting July 4th beach-goers, with no swimming allowed at Rehoboth and Dewey Beaches due to strong rip currents and waves moving in from Arthur’s wake.
Beach Patrol officials made the call earlier this morning.
“We anticipate rips and waves all day, all night," said Rehoboth Beach Patrol Captain Kent Buckson. "Even though the storm will be out of here by [Saturday] morning, there’s still going to be surf conditions that are dangerous with strong rip currents all day Saturday, probably into Sunday.”
With that in mind, Buckson adds it’ll take some time to lift the swimming ban due to the hazardous conditions.
“When the wind starts to lay down and the surf starts to calm down we can probably open it back up, but right now it’s actually just too dangerous for our lifeguards to even do their job and that’s a problem,” said Buckson, who noted Beach Patrol officials are reviewing conditions on an hourly basis.
Bethany Beach lifeguards say they’re still letting people into the water.
The beach at Rehoboth and Dewey are still open for holiday travelers and the fireworks display in Rehoboth is still planned later Friday evening.
Forecasts otherwise look mild for the rest of the weekend with highs along the coast in the upper 70s.