Lulu Gribbin was 15 years old and diving for sand dollars with a friend off the Florida Panhandle on June 7, 2024, when her life changed in seconds. She lost her left hand, part of her right leg, and nearly her life in a shark attack. What made it worse was what she learned afterward. Another woman had been bitten by a shark 90 minutes earlier, just 3 miles down the same beach. Gribbin had no idea.
That detail became the engine behind a new federal law. According to reports by CBS News and ABC News, President Trump last week signed what is now called Lulu's Law, which requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow emergency alerts to be sent to mobile phones when a shark attack occurs in the area. The legislation classifies a shark attack as an event that qualifies for an emergency alert, the same legal category used for Amber Alerts when a child is abducted.
Gribbin herself advocated for the law. "It's really just common-sense legislation. It says that whenever there has been a shark attack in a certain area where you are near, it will send an alert to your phone, exactly like how an Amber Alert system works when a child is abducted," she said. She added that she hopes the system prevents attacks like hers. "I definitely see this law working in the future and I'm really excited to hopefully save lives," she said.
The law authorizes the alerts at the federal level, but it is up to individual states to actually build and operate the systems. Alabama, Gribbin's home state, already approved such a warning system last year. That system was sponsored by Republican State Rep. David Faulkner.
Gribbin was one of three people bitten that day off the Florida Panhandle. She had been on a mother-daughter trip to the area. When the attack happened, she kept her head. She knew that sharks are drawn to frantic splashing, so she yelled for everyone to stay calm even as she swam for her life. She was closest to the shark and was bitten first.
"The shark bit off my hand first, and I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just flesh and bone there," Gribbin said. The shark then grabbed her leg. A man punched the shark away from her. Strangers on the beach rushed to help. She was airlifted by helicopter to a nearby hospital, where doctors saved her life but had to amputate part of her right leg.
Recovery was hard. She struggled with the reality of what had happened. "I would cry, and I would ask my mom, 'Why is it happening to me?' And on that day, we put a Bible verse on my bedside table that said, 'With God, all things are possible.' And then she told me that what you look like doesn't define you, it's who you are on the inside. And so, I think that stuck with me throughout my whole recovery the past two years," she said.
With the federal law now signed, the next step belongs to the states. Those that choose to implement the alert systems will have the legal authority to do so under the new framework. States that do not act will leave their beachgoers without the mobile warnings the law makes possible.
