Video: Warm Weather Means More People and Danger on Lakes and Waterways

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NORTH MISSISSIPPI (WCBI) — Already this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District has reported 6 drownings. The Corps is sounding the alarm as the weather warms up and families spend more time on the water. Their most important piece of advice: “Wear a Life Jacket”. The Corps says even the strongest swimmers can find themselves in trouble in natural waters.

“That’s how most drownings occur,” says Ralph Antonelli of the US Army Corps of Engineers. “People don’t think of their safety first. They never really intended to go into the water anyway. They either fell overboard because of an incident or accident on the water , or they fell off the dock, so they never intended to go into the water.”

According to the Corps of Engineers, 9 out of 10 people who drowned were not wearing life jackets.