3 caught in Florida Panhandle rip current die a day after couple drowns off state’s Atlantic coast

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say three Alabama men who went for an evening swim soon after arriving at a Florida Panhandle beach were caught in a rip current and died. The deaths Friday evening were the latest in a rash of Florida fatalities, including the drowning deaths of a Pennsylvania couple elsewhere in the state. The Bay County Sheriff’s Office said in an online post that the three Birmingham, Alabama, men encountered a rip current soon after going into the water. Each was found separately by emergency responders and pronounced dead at hospitals. Officials say the Pennsylvania couple was vacationing with their six children when they got caught swimming in a rip current off the Atlantic coast’s Hutchinson Island.