Two teenage sisters drowned while swimming off Coney Island in Brooklyn as a storm swept through the area Friday night, the second such fatality on a New York beach in less than a month.
Zainab Mohammed, 17, and Aisha Mohammed, 18, were reported missing after falling into the water near Stillwell Avenue shortly after 8 p.m., according to the New York City Police Department. Divers recovered the sisters, who were taken to a hospital in critical condition, police and fire officials said.
They were later pronounced dead at hospital, police said.
Their father, Mohammed Faye, said his family received a call around 8:30 p.m. Friday from other relatives in town telling them that two of his daughters were missing. He was told to go to Coney Island immediately, he said in a telephone interview Saturday.
“The whole family rushed to the beach,” Mr Faye said.
Over the next three hours, his family zigzagged from their Bronx home to the beach and then to the police station, he said. By the time they arrived at the hospital, Zainab had already been pronounced dead and medical staff were trying to resuscitate Aisha, he said.
The sisters had been visiting their grandmother on Friday before heading to the beach with other family members. Mr Faye said he did not understand why his daughters, who could not swim, had gone into the ocean, especially in the evening in less than ideal conditions.
Less than a day after the sisters’ deaths, a man died after being pulled from the water near Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan around 3:30 p.m. Saturday. He was rushed to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital but died before they arrived, police said.
The deaths, which came two weeks after two teenagers died while swimming in the Rockaways, Queens, beach, mark a particularly deadly start to the summer season on New York City’s beaches, where drownings are a recurring problem. More than two months after the hurricane’s arrival, the city has matched last year’s total of four deaths.
Meteorologists had warned Friday night that there was a high risk of rip currents forming in the area. The episode was reported after lifeguards left their shift at 6 p.m.; most of the recent drownings have occurred outside of lifeguard hours, when swimming is technically prohibited.
Last July, a 15-year-old boy died while swimming off Coney Island Beach, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s database of rip current deaths.
Rip currents kill more than 100 people each year in the United States and are responsible for most beach rescues. Experts advise swimming calmly in the water without trying to swim directly to shore, signaling for help, and swimming parallel to the beach until you reach an area beyond the rip current.
Earlier this year, city officials announced plans to use drones to help with rescues and prevent drownings after a severe lifeguard shortage last summer. The initiative would begin at Coney Island, Mayor Eric Adams said at the time.
On Saturday afternoon, several of the girls’ cousins were scattered around the family’s apartment in the Bronx’s Mount Hope neighborhood. They talked quietly, eating takeout as a pot simmered on the stove. A table fan whirred in the background.
A family photo taken at a Chuck E. Cheese ten years ago still hangs on the wall, showing the girls smiling with Mr. Faye and another sister.
Mr. Faye recalled that he had driven them to Coney Island several times when the girls were younger, but that at least five years had passed since then.
“I wish they had asked me,” he said, adding: “I would have asked God to take me and leave them.”
Alyce McFadden And Hurubie Meko contribution to the report.
