Suffolk warns of water dangers as heatwave approaches

Suffolk County officials are warning families to be careful around beaches, bays and pools as another heatwave approaches, after seven people have already died in water-related incidents in 2026. Suffolk County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Services and the Suffolk County Office of Emergency Management are urging residents to treat recreational water as a serious hazard, not a relief from the heat.

The numbers behind that warning are stark. Suffolk authorities handled 119 water-related calls in 2025, and 16 people drowned that year. In a county defined by shoreline access, bays, inlets and inland waterways, those calls are not an outlier. They are part of a pattern that keeps sending first responders back to the water all summer long.

Suffolk’s current warning also fits into a wider prevention push that began last year. Suffolk County released its first-ever Drowning Prevention Action Plan in July 2025, a document developed with The ZAC Foundation, Stony Brook Children’s Hospital and Stop Drowning Now, with input from more than 30 Suffolk County stakeholders. The plan defines drowning as respiratory impairment from submersion or immersion in liquid, and it was built to organize countywide work around the crisis, the drivers behind it, and a resource guide for response and prevention.

The heat itself is part of the danger. Governor Kathy Hochul’s office warned that some places could experience feels-like temperatures up to 110 degrees, and Suffolk County government maintains cooling-center and extreme-heat preparedness pages for residents trying to avoid the worst of the afternoon heat. Suffolk County Executive Edward P. Romaine posted on July 2 telling residents to exercise caution during the heatwave, while county and state officials have also pointed to swimming and cooling locations as places where people are likely to gather when temperatures spike.

For parents, teen swimmers and boaters, the practical change is simple: do not treat a hot day as a reason to gamble with the water. Suffolk officials are warning specifically about the kind of sudden decision that sends people in to cool off without checking conditions first, and about the risk of overestimating ability in the water. In a county where summer heat and easy access to water collide, that caution can be the difference between a routine outing and another emergency call.