OKALOOSA ISLAND The surf remained rough Friday, and most local beaches were closed to swimmers following Hurricane Isaac. <\/p>\n
However, residents and tourists should be able to enjoy the water over the Labor Day holiday weekend, as lifeguards and local officials expect conditions to improve enough to be able to reopen the beaches. <\/p>\n
Overnight things are going to get much better, Tracey Vause, Okaloosa Countys beach safety division chief, said Friday afternoon. What were dealing with right now is multiple, multiple rip currents. We still have relatively heavy surf, but we have high water and outgoing tides and rip currents. Its a number of different things that create a highly hazardous situation. <\/p>\n
Okaloosa Countys beaches have been closed to swimmers since Monday, but officials reopened beach accesses to the public Thursday. Walton County reopened its beach accesses at noon Friday. <\/p>\n
This is what the beaches looked like Friday. <\/p>\n
What they will be doing is monitoring the conditions of the beaches, said Wendy Ammons, public information officer for the Walton County Sheriffs Office. Theres a high surf advisory, and with the rip currents they will continue to monitor that and they can change it at any given point. We just want to keep people safe out there and have the double-red flags and continue to monitor. <\/p>\n
Vause said he will be on the beach at 5 a.m. Saturday and will decide about 9 a.m. whether to reopen beaches. <\/p>\n
In the event that we do come off the flags (today), we will likely still be under a red flag in the morning, which means the conditions are still highly hazardous and people need to be aware of that when theyre making a decision to come to the beach, Vause said <\/p>\n
Even if the beaches are open, Vause said water conditions will likely require single red flags Saturday, which still warns swimmers to use caution. He recommended that beachgoers swim near lifeguards this weekend. <\/p>\n
Santa Rosa County reopened its beaches to swimmers Friday. Joy Tsubooka, public information officer for the county, said the decision was made at 9:30 a.m. to switch to a single red flag. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Beaches expected to reopen to swimmers this weekend (SLIDESHOW)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OKALOOSA ISLAND The surf remained rough Friday, and most local beaches were closed to swimmers following Hurricane Isaac. However, residents and tourists should be able to enjoy the water over the Labor Day holiday weekend, as lifeguards and local officials expect conditions to improve enough to be able to reopen the beaches. Overnight things are going to get much better, Tracey Vause, Okaloosa Countys beach safety division chief, said Friday afternoon. Continue reading