Event narrative (NOAA)
Two young men drowned when a combination of along shore current with a possible embedded rip current moved them into deeper water east of Public Beach Access Point #2 on South Padre Island during the afternoon of July 4th. While wave height and swell period had decreased markedly in the days following Hurricane Alex (June 30/July 1), enough residual wave and current action remained to create potential deadly conditions on what is normally one of the busier weekends of the summer season.||One of the men drowned between 2:36 and 2:50 PM CDT; the other perished four days later after falling unconscious and ultimately having life support turned off due to brain death. Water conditions suggested a moderate rip current risk with a moderate along shore current, based on sea height of more than
Other notable rip current events in Texas
Source: NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database. Deaths and injuries are those NOAA classifies as direct. Damage is the reporting office's estimate at the time and is not inflation-adjusted. This is a catalogue record, not a forecast.