Long Island swim ban lifted in time for holiday weekend
BABYLON, N.Y. (WABC) -- Jones Beach, Robert Moses State Park and Hither Hills State Park were open and fully operational Friday after rough surf conditions and rip currents caused by the approach of Hurricane Cristobal prohibited swimming Thursday.
Many beaches were found to be flooded by high tide earlier Thursday, but those waters receded by Friday morning. Officials surveyed the scene overnight around 1 a.m. and then made the call to reopen for swimming, just in time for the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Still the water was rough. The remnants of Thursday's rip tide were not all washed out to sea.
"Last week, we went and they weren't anything as bad as this. they're crashing pretty hard," said Tyler Schettino, of Huntington.
Watch Amy Freeze's Labor Day weekend forecast:
Surfers were the only ones allowed in the water at Jones Beach Thursday, but it was less than ideal for everyone else.
"We came all the way from Connecticut," Stamford resident Derek Fredrickson said. "We come every year before school starts with the kids, and this year we showed up and red flags and no swimming. So we're making do with what we've got."
Cristobal was tracking by Long Island and created quite a nasty rip current along with 6-foot waves.
"They look like big monsters," one beachgoer said.
From Newscopter 7, you could see just how much water was brought up by the high tide. It created pools away from the ocean itself and offered beachgoers an alternative.
"The next best thing is being in these sorts of pools that have developed," said Krishtian Ramirez, a West Hempstead resident. "I have to make the best of it. You can't go in the water. It's the next best thing."
The hurricane passed off the coast Thursday night.
