Community members in South Haven are spreading awareness about beach safety after two more people drowned on Monday.
Bystanders pulled two unresponsive adults from the waters of South Beach in South Haven early Monday afternoon before first responders arrived, said the South Haven Police Department. Members of South Haven Area Emergency Services (SHAES) and police tended to the two people before taking them to Bronson South Haven Hospital. .
Police said Monday night that the two adults - a 22-year-old man from Novi, Michigan, and a 21-year-old woman from Columbus, Michigan - both died.
"Out of respect to the family, and to confirm notification, names of the victims will be released at a later date. Our thoughts and condolences are with both families," the Police Department said in a news release.
Flags were yellow when the two people were in the water.
"Just like any stoplights- green means go, yellow means caution, red means stop," explained Brandon Hinz, executive director of SHAES. "Yellow is safe for some people. It's not safe for others. You need to know your limits before you go in."
Hinz said SHAES has attendants riding along the beaches on ATVs and utility vehicles to educate beach-goers about the risks.
"Lake Michigan can change in an instant and we're very intense with our management of the flag system," Hinz said . "We're watching it constantly and updating the flags according to conditions and also with guidance from the National Weather Service as well."
The National Weather Service did issue a beach hazards statement Monday morning, advising people to stay out of the water and avoid venturing onto piers through Tuesday morning due to high waves and strong currents, The beach hazards statement covered Ottawa, Allegan, Van Buren and Muskegon counties,
To warn families about the dangers of Lake Michigan during such conditions, community member Amanda Soukup put up signs and handed out stickers that say, "Big waves? STAY SAFE in the SAND."
"South Haven is a great place to be. The beach is a great place to be. But the lake needs to be respected," said Soukup.
Soukup, who works at Jaqua Realtors, said she and her office are also educating beach-goers by leaving safety resources in rental homes.
"Those folks get a lot of information when they are here in their packets of information, talking about the flag system, educating them. We made magnets to go on refrigerators so those are going to go into a lot of the short-term rental homes," Soukup said.
In addition, Soukup said volunteers will be on "popsicle patrol," meaning they will be handing out popsicles to children while talking to them about beach safety.
"When you lived here for over 30 years, you feel like you just need to do something," said Soukup.
Monday's two drownings followed a drowning at Grand Haven State Park over the weekend. In July, there were another two drownings in South Haven in which a 7-year-old Texas boy and an Ohio man died.