2 Young Brooklyn Men Drown at Long Island Beaches; High Rip Current Risk Monday

Strong rip currents created treacherous conditions for swimmers over the weekend — and currents are expected to grow even stronger on Monday.

On Saturday, two 23-year-old men from Brooklyn died and several others were rescued from ocean beaches in Long Island.

In the first incident, Long Beach Police received a call about swimmers in distress at 6:30 p.m.

According to police, an off-duty lifeguard quickly rescued one victim, who said his friend was still in the water.

Authorities scoured the area and finally found 23-year-old Keshawn Carlos, who had been submerged in the water for about an hour, cops said.

Carlos, of Brooklyn, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

When lifeguards went off duty that day around 6 p.m., all swimmers were ordered out of the ocean, according to Long Beach Police. However, Carlos and his friend chose to swim back out, and became caught in a rip current, police say.

Several hours earlier, another 23-year-old Brooklyn man drowned at Rogers Beach on the East End. (The young man’s identity has not yet been released.)

At 1:40 p.m., lifeguards at the beach — located in the town of Westhampton Beach — called 911 and reported that a man was “struggling to exit the water,” according to police.

Four lifeguards pulled the victim from the water and began performing CPR, police say — but he had already gone into cardiac arrest.

When police arrived, they used an automatic external defibrillator to try and revive the victim.

Despite their efforts, he was pronounced dead a short time later at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead.

Lifeguards and police rescued numerous others from the ocean over the weekend. At Ocean Bay Park on Fire Island Saturday, Suffolk Police rescued two swimmers from a rip current. And on Friday, at the same beach, police and an off-duty lifeguard rescued three people.

The National Weather Service says there is a “high risk” of rip currents developing at all NYC and Long Island beaches on Monday afternoon and evening. The advisory will be in effect from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Surf height could build to four feet by afternoon, and there is a slight chance that lightning will strike within that time frame.

Rip currents are powerful channels of water flowing quickly away from shore. The NWS advises swimmers to pay attention to flags and posted signs, and to swim only in areas with lifeguards.

You can find more tips on how to avoid rip currents — and how to get out of one, once you’re in it — here.

Reporting by Ryan Bonner. Photo courtesy of Flickr/CreativeCommons/emma.marie.