Kits with lifesaving aids such as ring buoys and youth life jackets will appear at 10 public beaches along Lake Michigan in an effort to prevent drowning due to dangerous currents, officials announced Monday.

Michigan Sea Grant said the kits will be installed this summer. Additional support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is expected to put similar equipment on beaches in Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania during the next two years.

A database assembled by Michigan Sea Grant and the National Weather Service shows 138 swimmers drowned in the Great Lakes in the past 12 years including 69 in Michigan in incidents blamed at least in part on rip currents.

Michigans Great Lakes coasts, and the shore of Lake Michigan in particular, have become the epicenter of drowning-related deaths in the Great Lakes region, said Elizabeth LaPorte, Michigan Sea Grants communications and education services director.

Dangerous currents occur throughout the Great Lakes and are common along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. Rip currents are strong, narrow currents that move away from the shore. Trying to swim against a rip current can quickly lead to exhaustion.

Many Great Lakes beaches dont have trained lifeguards on duty. Each of the beach safety kits will contain a ring buoy, a throw bag and U.S. Coast Guard-approved life jackets for youths. Cards encouraging people to closely watch children at the beach also will be distributed.

We want people to enjoy the Great Lakes and to be safe at the beach, and this outreach effort will help raise awareness, said Michigan Sea Grant Director Jim Diana, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.

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Beaches along Great Lakes to get lifesaving aids