PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (WMBB) —Tropical storm Cristobal is expected to make landfall in Louisiana, but you don’t have to be in its direct path to feel it’s effects. Even with double red flags flying, that hasn’t stopped beachgoers from entering the waters.

Local beach goers say the conditions have worsened right before their eyes.

As tropical storm Cristobal moves it’s way up the Gulf Coast, here in the Panhandle, we can expect heavy rain, potential floods, and winds up to 30 miles per hour.

Southerly winds from Cristobal are roughing the surf, and creating life threatening rip currents and intense waves.

“It’s definitely getting worse, we showed up and came here on Tuesday. And it was a lot calmer,” said Vacationer, Brent Bartlett.

“It’s a little scary I’ve never been anything like this, but we had a trip planned and we were coming down no matter what so hopefully it doesn’t get any worse. Because we want to enjoy our vacation,” said Tourist, Jonah Hillard.

“It’s been crazy, it’s been raining off and on, and the waves have been all up on us, we’ve barely been able to sit on the beach,” said Beach-goer Sarah Barker

Beach-goers say they are ready for conditions to calm.

“I mean it’s sad because we have a bunch of people with us on our senior trip and we just want to be able to have fun, but we’ve had a good time so far. It’s just there’s not a lot of beach room,” said Barker.

“It’s actually very crazy. We come here every year, or multiple times a year most of the time, and I’ve never seen the beach like this. We can’t really sit anywhere without the waves coming up, and there’s people being rescued,” said Vacationer, Nate Black.

As for the double red flags, many people out on the beach have seen others being rescued from the waters.

Beach patrol is monitoring the waters closely, making sure no one is putting themselves at risk.

“We’ve stayed out of it, but there has been a couple people going in and out but people have been patrolling telling them to get out of the water,” said Hillard.

“They’ve been getting in trouble, we’ve been watching the trucks and four wheeler’s drive-by,” said Bartlett. 

But not everyone is following the law.

“After the trucks leave, they get out but they get right back in,” said Bartlett.

Even after Cristobal makes landfall, hazardous weather conditions here locally could continue these next few days.