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Jersey Shore Towns See Surge In Rip Current Deaths This Summer

NEW JERSEY (CBS) -- The number of drownings at the Jersey Shore is up this year.

Jersey shore towns have reported a total of ten drownings this summer season, and rip currents are to blame for at least half of those.

"They have been bad, and we need to take extra caution, because it's so difficult to see a rip current," said CBS 3 Meteorologist Lauren Casey. "It's really difficult to look at the ocean and tell where it's located."

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That is why, Casey adds, swimmers should always stay in front of a life guard station.

Statistics from the US Lifesaving Association say that only one in 18 million people will die from a rip current at a life guarded beach.

Unfortunately, of those fatalities this summer on the Jersey coast, several were swimming at night or after lifeguards had left the beach.

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