On Sunday, a 45-year-old woman drowned off Amagansett. The East Hampton Press reports there were "several distressed swimmers at an unprotected beach in Amagansett, between Atlantic Avenue and Napeague Lane, and upon arrival found a civilian assisting several swimmers out of the 'heavy surf and dangerous riptides.'" Leslie Wanek Sgaglione was unconscious and, after administering CPR and other lifesaving measures, she was pronounced dead at Southampton Hospital. Another beachgoer said he saw Sgaglione in the water while she was apparently trying to save distressed swimmers, but then she struggled against a riptide. Her children were reportedly also on the beach. more ›

Last night, an hour after lifeguards went off duty, 14-year-old boy was swept out by a rip tide off Jacob Riis Park in Queens. WCBS 2 reports that while "the NYPD and the Coast Guard had choppers in the air Wednesday morning...the effort was downgraded from a rescue mission to a recovery search, as authorities fear that this will be the second drowning this month in unguarded waters." The first drowning is that of Nicole Suriel, the public school student who drowned off Long Beach. more ›

Though Hurricane Bill is weakening and spinning away from New England's coastline, nearby beaches were still closed, due to rip current threats and flooding. While NYC preemptively closed most city beaches on Friday, Long Island and NJ beaches weren't closed until yesterday. NYC beachgoers were threatened with tickets if they tried to approach the water while Long Island's Robert Moses Beach had to be closed—a state parks spokesman told Newsday, "The entire sand part of the park is under water" (the beach did reopen later for sunbathing). In NJ's Ocean Grove, lifeguards told the Star-Ledger, "We're only allowing surfers that seem competent. We've had pretty bad rip currents," but one in Ocean City told WCBS 2, "People are walking and it's ankle deep and get swept out because ankle deep goes to knee deep goes to chest deep." more ›