Dozens of NYC beaches warn of high bacteria levels in water after heavy rain

CONEY ISLAND (WABC) -- New York City is warning people to stay out of the water at a dozen beaches because of elevated bacteria levels after all of the rain this week.

The New York City Health Department is advising against swimming. The advisory even applies to wading but there have been no announcements on the beach.

There was one small sign on the boardwalk.

"Oh my God! They should warn people more what's going on," Stephanie Grinberg said.

In fact, health officials say the average bacteria level is approximately 20 per hundred milliliters, but after all the torrential rain at Coney Island, the bacteria sat at around 227, more than 10 times higher.

An infectious disease expert at Northwell helped make sense of the health risk.

"The most common problem is swallowing the water and getting a gastrointestinal illness, virus or bacterial infection. It can be irritating to the eyes to the ears and as a general rule, it's not very aesthetically pleasing to think that you're swimming in contaminated water, Dr. Bruce Farber, Northwell Infectious Disease Chief, said.

Most of these swimmers were tourists.

"The ocean's the ocean to us, we're not around too much so still the ocean. We're used to freshwater, so," Spencer Phelps said.

The New Yorkers were frustrated that they had made the trip.

"And now we can't go in because of bacteria?"

There is still plenty of fun to be had at Coney Island.

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