a lawsuit but yes, there are people too stupid to leave the beach during a thunderstorm.
I don’t know about the lifeguard who was on her phone a lot. For all we know, she was the one with the responsibility of tracking the radar.
Now see, my thinking is if she's sitting in a chair on the beach (or poolside), she should be looking at the water, not her phone. If there WAS a lifeguard carefully tracking the storm, they should've been doing so in the lifeguards' building that was right on the beach. But then again, they may not have had enough lifeguards to go around. Between not wanting a job with a lot of responsibility and not wanting to work for little pay*, the beaches and pools may have trouble attracting enough candidates for the job.
* Out of curiosity, I Googled...in my area, a lifeguard typically earns between $16-20/hour, which is certainly better pay than most retail and restaurant jobs around here (not counting potential tips as a server at a sit down restaurant).
I doubt very seriously that the lifeguards were just trying to get a half hour of not having to watch the water. Clearing the crowd and making sure everyone got to safety was a lot of work. I swim in a lot of different situations (inside/outside/pool/ocean) and I have a lot of respect for lifeguards. I’ve seen them save lives both in the ocean and in the pool. It might look like they are “doing nothing” but they have to be ready to spring into action whenever a situation suddenly comes up.
I don't doubt that it's a lot of work, nor do I doubt lifeguards save lives. I also don't doubt there could've been a storm out there that veered off course at the last minute. What I *do* know is other than clouds, there was no sign of a storm. I also know that I've worked with plenty of young people who would actively find ways to NOT work while on the job so I truly could see it going either way: an abundance of caution or "yay, 30 minutes (or more) of doing nothing and getting paid for it!". Honestly, I'm not trying to rip on lifeguards here...I'm just increasingly pessimistic these days about the work ethic of the younger generations.
If you’re ever on a beach without lifeguards and you see or hear signs of a thunderstorm, get the hell off that beach as quickly as possible.
I already do so.
