Beaches across the country have long used colored flags to alert swimmers to unsafe water conditions, with a green flag signaling safe swimming while yellow signals higher hazard, red signals unsafe conditions, and double red means water access is closed.
But it’s cumbersome and time consuming to swap out the flags, Grand Haven State Park Supervisor Andrew LundBorg said, costing precious minutes that could raise the risk of drowning.
So on Monday, the park unveiled eight new towers equipped with colored lights that can be updated with the push of a button. The towers double as a public address system, allowing parks staff to announce beach closures instantaneously.
And in an emergency, they automatically summon response crews to the scene.
“It gives us a much broader voice to be able to communicate with people on the beach,” LundBorg said of the new system, which should be operational in the coming weeks.
Created by the Michigan-based company SwimSmart, the towers are a new response to a longstanding problem: Every year, the Great Lakes claim dozens of lives.
