PANAMA CITY BEACH — Another person has drowned while swimming off the coast of the Beach.
According to Daryl Paul, beach safety director for Panama City Beach Fire Rescue, an adult male tourist drowned on July 27 while swimming in the Gulf near Beach Access 42.
This marks the third beach drowning in Panama City Beach so far this year. It occurred during yellow-flag conditions.
“From what we gathered, it was a medial emergency in the water,” Paul said. “When we got on scene, there were no rip currents. It was calm seas. Bystanders on shore are saying he dove under a shallow wave and then floated up unresponsive.”
He noted that although the incident might be linked to a medical emergency, it still gets classified as a beach drowning.
Past reports note two other people have drowned so far this year while swimming off the coast of PCB. The incidents happened on June 14 near Beach Access 52, and on May 17 near Beach Access 72. Like the July 27 drowning, these victims were tourists.
The June drowning also happened under yellow-flag condition, while a single red flag was post during the May drowning. Paul believes the May drowning, involving a man in his 60s, also is linked to a medical emergency, not just rip-current related.
Common beach flag colors include a green flag for low hazard conditions, a yellow flag for medium hazard conditions, one red flag for high hazard conditions, and two red flags for very dangerous conditions.
Panama City Beach and Bay County, however, never fly green flags. Local officials say beachgoers should be cautious anytime they enter the Gulf because of ever-changing conditions.
Flag colors are based on rip current risk, not wave heights.
Rip currents are fast-moving currents created by channels in surrounding sandbars. These channels often run perpendicular to the shoreline and cause water to funnel faster out into deeper waters of the Gulf.
Rips can vary in strength, depending on how developed the channels are, and they can sometimes be identified from shore where there is a gap in the wave break ― areas where the white caps of the breaks are less noticeable.
“I, as the director, am committed to stopping drownings in this community, and so is every lifeguard here,” Paul said. “We are professionally focused on that shoreline, and we do our best. We’re a small team with a big punch.”
Those interested in staying up to date on beach flags can sign up for daily text alerts by texting “PCBFLAGS” to 888777.
This article originally appeared on The News Herald: City of Panama City Beach logs third Gulf drowning of 2025. Here’s what we know:
Reporting by Nathan Cobb, Panama City News Herald / The News Herald
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
