Lifeguard Shortages Remain For Milwaukee, Affect Much Of Nation

MILWAUKEE, WI — This could be the summer of disappointment for local kids — and adults — as local officials struggle to staff Milwaukee County beaches and pools, but the problem isn't unique to Wisconsin.

Nationally, about a third of pools either won’t open or will limit hours due to lifeguard shortages, American Lifeguard Association Director Bernard J. Fisher II told Newsweek.

“Regretfully, it's probably going to be the worst summer,” he said. “We have 309,000 public pools in the U.S. but we don't have the youth in the ratio to the population.”

This summer, the Cool Waters park in West Allis is expected to remain closed. Several beaches across Milwaukee County will not have lifeguards. The lack of lifeguard services at many of Milwaukee's most popular lakefront destinations is not new — in 2017, the County discontinued the service at Atwater Park in Shorewood.

RELATED: Cool Waters To Remain Closed For 2022 Season Amid Lifeguard Shortage

The Village has since managed to hire a lifeguard service for their Atwater Park lake frontage in 2021 and 2022, with staffing expected in late June through August. Other suburban beaches such as Doctors Park in Fox Point or Grant Park in South Milwaukee will not be staffed this summer.

The COVID-19 pandemic contributed, as it has regarding labor shortages in other aspects of life.

But with lifeguards, it’s more complicated than that. The pandemic meant fewer training opportunities both to become lifeguards and to recertify, Fisher told NPR.

And on top of that, the lifeguard shortage existed before the pandemic, driven by an abrupt change in immigration policy, Fisher said.

Lifeguards found better opportunities at condos and hotels about 20 years ago, leading municipalities and others to rely mainly on Eastern Europeans with J-1 visas allowing them to work in the United States, Fisher told NPR.

J-1 and other temporary visas that allowed skilled professionals and managers to work in the United States were suspended in April 2020, which President Donald Trump said at the time was to protect American jobs as COVID-19 restrictions increased unemployment. In June, he extended the pause on J-1 work visas and other temporary visas through the end of the year.

“That was the straw in the camel’s back that broke everything down,” Fisher said.

The ban expired under President Biden but Fisher told NPR the lifeguard shortages will persist at least through next year and likely longer.

In the meantime, it’s important for kids who are novice swimmers to wear U.S. Coast Guard-approved jackets in the water and for groups to designate a water watcher to keep an eye on kids, Fisher said.

Drowning Looks Different Than You Think

Drowning happens more quietly in real life than it does on TV. In some cases, children drown with an adult only a few feet away.

More children ages 1-4 die from drowning than from any other cause of death except birth defects, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For children ages 1-14, drowning is the second-leading cause of unintentional injury death after motor vehicle crashes.

The CDC says about 3,960 people die from drowning every year, or about 11 people a day. Additionally, there are more than 8,080 non-fatal drownings a year, or an average of 22 a day, according to CDC data.

You might expect to see flailing arms or hear a frantic call for help when someone is drowning, but drowning doesn’t look the way you may think it does. Real-life drowning happens quietly and not at all like the dramatic scenarios that play out on television. People can’t simply stop drowning long enough to take in a breath of air and call for help. The human body isn’t built that way.

Before people drown, they may thrash around in the water — a sign they’re in “aquatic distress,” which may or may not happen before a drowning. They’re normally able to assist in their own rescue by grabbing lifelines, throw rings and other devices.

A true drowning victim is most often helpless. That’s because of how the body instinctively responds to drowning, according to lifeguard Francesco Pia, who came up with the name Instinctive Drowning Response to describe the process.

Rescuers have as few as 20 seconds and up to a minute to save a person from drowning.

To know what drowning looks like, the Coast Guard’s On Scene magazine originally published five tips for recognizing drowning that was shared by Slate.