ABC News99%
Officials: Nearly 500 ocean rescues made along California coast in two days 90%
7/30/2026, 5:13:32 PM
BS Summary: This video contains 24 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Availability Heuristic, and Recency Bias, with Appeal to Emotion as the most egregious example at 69.7% saturation with 449 hits. Analysis detected 2,496 faulty-reasoning hits from 644 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 82.8% and a BS Rank of 90% (2,355 of 22,225 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 89.40% of the video peer group.
We begin with the dangerous waves and life-threatening rip currents slamming the coast as millions of Americans brace for potentially record smashing heat.
Violent surf battering roughly 700 miles along the California shoreline. About 500 water rescues over the last 48 hours.
A tragic discovery in the Northeast following those severe storms.
Authorities in New Jersey recovering the body of a 10-year-old boy from the Payic River. They say he died trying to save his sister before being swept away.
In Washington DC, flash flooding and winds gusting up to 60 mph. Homes damaged.
Tonight, more than 80 million under dangerous heat alerts from California to Florida.
Lee Goldberg standing by with the forecast.
But first, ABC's Trevor Al leads us off tonight. Dangerous waves and high surf churning up and down 700 miles of the California coastline as
Hurricane Genevieve spins in the Pacific. Los Angeles County officials say they've performed nearly 500 ocean rescues in the past 2 days.
>> It's uh been like near record, if not record-breaking uh rescue uh work for us over the last couple of days. We'll have continued large surf, very strong rip currents. Over the weekend in Santa Cruz, dramatic video captured teen lifeguard Ryder Williams rescuing a 10-year-old boy from pounding surf.
That 16-year-old guard now speaking out about the harrowing incident, saying, "I saw a child lose his footing in ankle deep water.
I radioed it in, put my fins on my wrist, popped my buoy, and entered the water. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to return the child to his family safely."
The father of that rescued boy is thankful his son survived.
>> He assumed he was going to die. Uh he was he was drowning. He he knew he was drowning.
>> The high surf threat comes as the region also faces an increasing heat dome with tens of millions of Americans under extreme heat warnings across the Southwest.
And in the Northeast, cleanup efforts are underway after a massive storm system brought up to 10 in of rain there, prompting more water rescues.
Whipping winds shearing the roof off this building in Maryland. Well, in nearby Salisbury, this woman having a frightening close call with a lightning strike and a tragedy in New Jersey. Authorities recovering the body of a 10-year-old boy swept away in fastmoving Poseic River waters. And officials say he died trying to save his sister.
>> As he was going under, he pushed her and she ended up by the rocks and she climbed out.
Another 10-year-old girl is also missing and rising water levels from even more rain have complicated the search.
And back here in Los Angeles, officials say last weekend lifeguards made well over a thousand rescues and they are expecting similar numbers this weekend.
They say with the water and the heat, this could easily be their busiest summer in recent memory. Whit.
>> Okay, Trevor, we appreciate it. Let's get right to ABC's senior meteorologist Lee Goldberg. Lee, millions of Americans under those heat alerts. with off the charts heat in the west through the weekend. We have excessive heat all the way from the west into the southeast.
Thankfully, the heat and humidity in the southeast subsides. It's exact opposite out west. Extreme heat warnings LA, Las Vegas, all the way to Arizona. Yes, we see 100° in Vegas and in Phoenix, but 114, 116, these are approaching records.
And we've got fire danger in the Northwest. In terms of storms, we're clearing out finally in the Northeast, but in the plains, some severe weather now will be moving into the Midwest over the weekend, ultimately into the Northeast by early next week.
Whit.
>> All right, Lee, we will brace for that.
Thank you.
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