By Alex Napoliello | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The Manasquan Fire Rescue boat assisted in numerous rescues on Sunday from Avon-by-the-Sea to Manasquan. (Photo courtesy of Manasquan Borough)
Summer-like temperatures, dangerous rip currents and post-Labor Day unguarded Jersey Shore beaches made for a dangerous and deadly combination over the weekend as three people died after being pulled from the ocean.
Rescue crews and the Coast Guard were pressed into extensive service along the Shore as bathers ignored warnings of rough surf and quickly found themselves overcome by the waves. At least 100 rescues were reported - including 39 in Long Branch and 35 in Belmar.
Although the Shore waters are largely unguarded after summer, some towns beefed up lifeguard patrols and police officers in anticipation of large crowds from the 80-degree weather on the first weekend of fall. In most cases, it paid off.
Here's a look at the Shore towns that have provided information so far on rescues this weekend.
Long Branch, 39 rescues, 1 dead
Long Branch had 27 rescues on Sunday and 12 on Saturday, according to Chris Keiper, the city's ocean rescue supervisor. Keiper said eight of the 39 rescues involved multiple victims. Lifeguards stayed on duty until 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
Long Branch also had one of three swimming-related deaths over the weekend. A 34-year-old Piscataway man died after he was pulled from the ocean off Seven Presidents Park, which is patrolled by a Monmouth County team of lifeguards.
An ambulance gurney sits at the entrance to the O Street beach in Seaside Heights in this June 20, 2012, file photo. (Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger)
Seaside Park, 2 rescues, 1 dead
A 44-year-old woman died on Sunday in Seaside Park after she was pulled from the ocean, officials said.
The woman was pulled from the water off the O Street beach, said Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. Two off-duty nurses attempted to give the woman CPR on the beach but she later died at Community Medical Center in Toms River, Della Fave said.
He said about an hour later, two teenagers got caught in a rip current and had to be rescued. They refused medical attention once they got to the shore, Seaside Park police chief Francis Larkin said.
Larkin said lifeguards were patrolling the beach on quads and educating beachgoers about rip currents.
Point Pleasant Beach, 1 dead
A 60-year-old man died on Sunday after he was pulled from the ocean off Jenkinson's Beach, police said. Glen Carullo, of Waldwick, lost consciousness in the water near the Point Pleasant Beach police substation, according to police.
He was taken to the hospital where he died, police said.
Photo courtesy of Lake Como Mayor Brian Wilton
Belmar, 35 rescues
The rescues started becoming so frequent on Sunday that Lake Como Mayor Brian Wilton, a core member of the Belmar Water Rescue Team, put out an all-hands-on-deck call to nearby members of the team.
An additional 10 members answered, including one person who left a family dinner to assist in rescue efforts. By the end of the weekend, Belmar had rescued 35 swimmers from the ocean.
The United States Coast Guard dispatched its rescue boat from the Shark River station twice to assist in rescue efforts. Lifeguards and police were driving up and down the beach monitoring the ocean, but swimmers defied orders to stay out.
Sea Girt, 24 rescues
The lifeguard team in Sea Girt had 15 rescues on Saturday and 10 on Sunday, but one of those was to assist with a possible CPR in progress on Spring Lake, said Tim Harmon, the chief of the Sea Girt lifeguards. The swimmer pulled from the water in Spring Lake had an asthma attack while swimming and was taken to the hospital, Harmon said.
On Saturday, the Sea Girt team had four ambulance calls, including one for two swimmers that nearly submerged in the ocean, according to Harmon.
Harmon said the borough lifeguards are not officially on duty, but he put them back on for the weekend.
"As lifeguard chief and OEM director, having lifeguards in a position to respond and react was the difference between life and death for some ignoring the warnings to go in," Harmon said. "The beaches were packed. Many towns did the right thing and brought lifeguards back on."
A member of the Atlantic City Beach Patrol rows a boat in the ocean in this 2007 file photo. (Noah K. Murray | The Star-Ledger)
Atlantic City, 20 rescues
Twenty swimmers were rescued from the ocean off Atlantic City over the weekend, according to senior lifeguard Lt. John Ammerman.
He said 13 had to be assisted out of the water on Sunday and seven on Saturday.
"We've had a lot of hairy rescues over the past month or so," he said. "It's been bad."
Fortunately, Ammerman said, none of the people rescued over the weekend went to the hospital.
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A Sea Bright lifeguard enters the water during Tropical Storm Hermine on Sept. 4, 2016. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Sea Bright, 'a couple dozen' rescues
In Sea Bright, Mayor Dina Long said there were "a couple dozen saves" along the shore in the borough over the weekend. She said the public safety director, John Sorrentino, doubled up on the number lifeguards on the beach. However, most of the rescues happened in areas south of the protected beaches, Long said.
Manasquan, 5 rescues
Manasquan Fire and First Aid responded to three water rescue incidents at borough beaches over the weekend, according to the Manasquan Office of Emergency Management.
At least two other bathers were rescued by surfers or good Samaritans, officials said.
Manasquan Beach Manager Wally Wall said the borough stopped staffing lifeguards on the beaches after Sept. 17.
A file photo from July of Ocean City lifeguards patrolling the beaches. (Mark Brown | For NJ.com)
Ocean City, 3 rescues
The Ocean City Beach patrol had to enter the ocean three times on Saturday to rescue swimmers, officials said.
All three rescues happened off the 9th Street beach where "a particularly strong" rip current forms near the jetty, Ocean City spokesman Doug Bergen said. He said that stretch of beach is the busiest on Ocean City.
None of the swimmers rescued received any injuries, he said.
The Ocean City Beach Patrol set up a rapid response team over the weekend that had lifeguards on ATVs and personal watercrafts.
Photo by Robert Sciarrino | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Avon-by-the-Sea, 2 rescues
Police Chief Terrence Mahon said five people were saved during two separate rescue attempts that happened within 20 minutes of each other in Avon-by-the-Sea on Sunday.
The first call came in just after 4 p.m., Mahon said. Two children and two adults, including a man that attempted to help the swimmers and got stuck on the jetty, were pulled out of the ocean off the Lincoln Avenue beach, Mahon said.
Twenty minutes later, a man was taken to Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune after he came out of the water off Woodland Avenue vomiting and out of breath, Mahon said.
He said the man appeared to have swallowed too much water while swimming and struggled to get back to shore.
Swimming will be prohibited on Monday and the only people permitted in the water are surfers, Mahon said.
Harvey Cedars, 1 rescue
The chief lifeguard in Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island, Randy Townsend, said his crew is one of the only beach patrols on the island that stays on through the entire month of September. He said there was one save on Sunday afternoon.
Police Chief Robert Burnaford said two beaches stay guarded and roving patrols ride up and down the unprotected beaches. "The fact that our lifeguards are right there, its a huge help for us," he said.
NJ Advance Media's Luke Nozicka and Andrew Mills contributed to this report.
Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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