by Jim Segerstrom

Two Case Studies

At 5:45 p.m., June 6, 2003, near Jackson, California, a small community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, famed for Yosemite National Park, 20 year-old Joshua Julian, with his younger brother, his three children, aged 3, 2, and 1, and the mother of one of the children, was driving up the road parallelling the rain-swollen Mokelumne River, on a stretch where this author frequently teaches swiftwater and flood rescue courses.

They were planning on swimming in the river, cold and running at twice its normal dam-controlled flow. He was reported by the California Highway Patrol to be travelling on the narrow road at a high and unsafe rate of speed, when he lost control and the car flipped over, went down a 100 m. steep embankment, and ended up in the river. Julian and his brother quickly escaped and swam to the bank. The car, with the woman and three children inside, floated downstream for over half a mile before coming to rest on the bottom - the engine facing upstream, with the top of the car barely out of the water. Initial arriving rescuers included the Matador County Sheriff's Search and Rescue Team, personnel from the California Department of Forestry, including at least two certified swiftwater rescue technician instructors; and personnel from both the California Highway Patrol; and the Calaveras County Sheriff's office and Search and Rescue Team. After establishing a highline rope system across the river, rescuers used an inflatable selfbailing whitewater raft to manoeuvre to the eddy on the downstream side of the car, but were unable to see inside due to the fast moving water. By late evening swiftwater rescue team members had clambered on to the car, which had sunk further into the gravel on the bottom of the river, but the decision was made to pull everybody back until daylight on the 7th. After two hours of rest, exhausted rescuers discovered that that the incident commander had managed to get the flows from dams upstream reduced slightly. Still, the increasing snow melt had the flow of the river nearly double its normal mid-summer level of 2500 cubic feet per second, and the water was now over the top of the car. The rescue teams changed the boat on the Tyrolean rope system from a paddleboat to a cataraft with an oar frame, and were able to pull up on top of the trunk of the car. With great difficulty the rescuers managed to get out the bodies of two of the children, but were unable to reach the body of the woman. While rescuers laboriously placed cargo straps around the entire car, entailing having to get virtually underwater on each side in the fast moving current, a Bell 212 helicopter from near-by Sacramento was called to assist. The helicopter sling loaded the car the 25 feet to the right side of the river. In full daylight the body of the woman was then removed. Other rescue team members searching downstream found the small body of the last child in a few feet of water along the bank. Julian was arrested for vehicular manslaughter.

In a similar incident in Virginia on April 11th, swiftwater rescue instructor George Lewis and his Warren County Swiftwater Rescue Team responded to a call for a car in the water on the flood swollen South Fork of the Shenandoah. Just after 1 p.m. bystanders reported that a car had been washed off a bridge and floated some 500 yards before sinking out of sight in the river-10 times higher than normal. Putting their Inshore Rescue Boat, (IRB) in the river below the point last seen the team first searched downstream and then spotted the vehicle, occasionally bobbing to the surface. Using a pike pole, they broke out the rear window, which was almost 2 feet under the surface, and looped a webbing strap around the corner post and then hooked that to a cable extending to a four wheel drive truck on the bank. The car started to come up out of the water as soon as the truck started to pull and Lewis broke out one of the windows to decrease the pressure against the vehicle and the weight of the water inside. When the vehicle was on the bank, the team was able to extricate the male driver and start CPR, which was, despite the coldness of water, and the quickness of the response, unsuccessful. An Ongoing Problem.

When I first started the Swiftwater Rescue Technician program in the United States nearly 25 years ago, one of the early pieces of news footage I used to illustrate this timeless and increasingly common rescue scenario came from a flood in Tucson, Arizona. After being rescued from their car by a helicopter, one of the drivers says, "We see reports all the time on your news show of people trapped in their cars, and I always say, 'Boy, those idiots, what are they doing?' And then, here we are!" Not much has happened in the intervening years. Drivers still think that such things only happen to others. They still challenge flooded roadways. And then, "here we are" again and again. In the United States cars stuck in flooded roadways is the number one flood related rescue problem, and the number of incidents is constantly rising. Worldwide, such occurrences are now commonplace, as the world warms and flood events become more prevalent and severe, causing flooding where it has not regularly occurred before. The floods of 2002 in Europe and Russia lead to literally thousands of vehicles, and their passengers, being trapped in flood waters, in some cases still water, but in many cases, water moving fast enough to carry off dozens of cars, and kill nearly 60 drivers and passengers. Despite major education efforts by such organizations as the Environmental Agency in the UK, and FEMA and NOAA in the United States, drivers seem to remain blithely unaware of the hazard, risking themselves and their families needlessly and sometimes fatally. And once stuck, they now rely on their cell phones to call for help, fully expecting that rescuers will arrive with high-tech solutions in training and equipment to quickly and safely get them to shore, not realizing that such training and equipment largely doesn't exist. Experience, a wise man once said, "is an accumulation of personal bad judgment that one manages to survive."As a rescue educator, my job is to try to emphasize such fatal lessons to my students, so they won't repeat them. Public safety officials have largely agreed that personal safety is the first priority of the professional. But urgency and emotion are strong drivers, sometimes too strong to ignore, despite our instincts and training. So rescuers around the world will still try, again sometimes with fatal results. Near Mebane, North Carolina about five years ago, a driver was stuck in his car after being pushed off a low-water crossing. Firefighters arriving on scene, decided to attempt what they felt was a "common sense" rescue effort. After a rope was tied around his waist a youthful and physically fit firefighter, a father of two, attempted to wade to the car. Just past a telephone pole he found that the water pressurenow waist deep-was more than he could resist. He was swept off his feet, and downstream to the end of the rope. His fellows then discovered the power of moving water: His body weight, combined with the water pressure against his body, was more than they could pull-upstream first and then around the telephone pole. The firefighter died at the end of the rope. But so as not to forget the point, a 19-year-old firefighter in Pennsylvania repeated the technique just weeks later. He died stuffed underneath the car he was trying to approach by wading to it from upstream. And again in the UK in recent years a firefighter died on the end of a rope held by colleagues. None of these firefighters was wearing a personal flotation device, or buoyancy aid.

Getting Ready
Vehicles stranded in the water shouldn't come as a big surprise to most rescue agencies. They happen everywhere, in every country, in every climate. Indeed, the most significant and lifethreatening events occur in deserts and arid areas-where flash floods, moving at tremendous velocities and carrying surface and suspended loads of rocks, mud and debris, are the primary moving water problems. Flood events are b ecoming more prevalent, due to a combination of factors including urbanization, agricultural development, and a steady increase in global warming.

So, knowing that such events will occur, local emergency services should take the following steps:

1. Survey low water crossings-both where such calls have occurred in the past, and other potential locations.
2. Make sure that street and highway maintenance organizations are part of the planning process.
3. Plan on barricading problem roadways if forecasts call for rainfalls that have caused past problems.
4. Consider local ordinances and additions to vehicle codes so that drivers that ignore posted signs, barricades and traffic control personnel can be cited and fined. (Arizona pioneered such "stupid motorist laws" with a vehicle code section that leaves the "perp" with a hefty fine and a one-year's suspension of the driver's license!)
5. Make sure that the public is aware-through education and information-of the substantial danger, and that, while rescue services will do their best-there is no guarantee of rescue success.
6. Train responders in technician-level swiftwater and flood rescue courses, to give them as many options at such scenes as possible.
7.Buy the proper rescue equipment-flotation devices, inflatable rafts, ropes, and line launchers, waterproof bags for radios, headlamps, and other specialized gear.
8. And practice with other rescue resources, such as agencies with powerboats and local rescue helicopters. Remember, many of these rescues occur at night and in bad weather, pushing the limits of personnel and machines, perhaps past the danger point.

Sizing up the Scene and Hazard Assessment

Initial, Hasty, Size-up
On arrival there are a number of issues with which the Incident Commander and staff must immediately deal ON ANY FLOOD RESPONSE:
1. Make sure that all bystanders are back a safe distance from the edge of the river.
2. Make sure that ALL rescue personnel INSIDE 15 FEET (4 m.) of the edge are wearing minimal PPE-a personal flotation device, lightweight shoes, and lightweight rain gear. NO fire protective clothing or fire helmets in this "warm" zone. Turnout gear and fire helmets are inappropriate and potentially dangerous in moving water.
3. Put "spotters", hopefully on both sides, upstream far enough so that they can give adequate warning, by whistle or radio, of debris coming down on the rescue scene.
4. Post "back-up" rescuers downstream, with throw lines, bags, and possibly boats, in the event that something goes wrong during the rescue.
5. Appoint a "Safety" person as part of the command staff. Such "safety" persons should be among the most knowledgeable members of the department regarding flood rescue, giving them an ability to spot potential dangers early.
6. Conduct and maintain personnel accountability checks during the incident, particularly at night. No personnel should work alone.
7. Consider environmental issues-water coming up, going down? Weather forecast? Night? Water moving through urban areas, so possibility of hazardous materials in water? If so, take water samples for later evaluation.
8. Consider using SEADEPTH, (below) to assist in planning and response.

"SEA DEPTH." A hazard assessment and size-up, combined. A suggested pneumonic from Battalion Chief Tim Rogers, Charlotte, NC, Fire Department. (Tim can be contacted at ).

I strongly recommend that public safety officials consider using the following pneumonic developed by noted swiftwater/flood rescue authority Tim Rogers. A Battalion Chief with Charlotte Fire Department, Tim is member of the International Rescue Instructors Association, is a frequent conference speaker, and a technical specialist in North Carolina for flood disaster responses. After the problems of Hurricane Floyd, Tim developed "S.E.A.D.E.P.T.H" as a handy tool for tactical organizations facing ANY flood rescue call:

If we are responding to actual calls then remember:
L for Locate
A for Access
S for Stabilize
T for Transport
As the four phases of ANY "search and rescue."

Consider using T.E.M.P.O as a "size-up" tool
T for Time (of the incident, and how much has elapsed,) and Temperature-air and water.
E for Energy, (personnel fresh or tired,) and Equipment-what do we have on scene and what more do we need?
M for Movement, (water speed,) and Measurement, (volume of flow, increasing or decreasing?)
P for Pre-plan; do we have any for this location, and Personnel, do we have enough trained people, and do we need to call for more?
O for Operate: Choose an initial plan, consider a secondary plan, and get to work.


S-Situation and Strategy Should the agency be put on alert, should reconnaissance be conducted, or should we be responding?
E for Egress If my team goes in to make the rescue, can we get them out? Are we losing egress because the water is rising?
A for Access Can I still get to the site where the car is trapped, or am I losing it? If we lose access, we lose egress. So being pre-deployed and having evacuation routes already established are essential.
D for Development How developed is the area we are going to? What is the population, how many structures, and how will that affect run-off and hazardous materials?
E for Existing Rainfall
P for Potential Rainfall - increasing flooding and water depth.
T for Topography Survey maps of the area are a critical part of the cache for incident command, along with insurance and flood plan maps. Using these tools, incident command should be able to determine where the water will go and what areas are going to be inundated first.
H for Hazards Have all the existing and potential hazards been identified? Has the IC identified a "technical specialist" to assist? Are there storm water management systems that haven't been taken into account as potential hazards? Remember, floods are public health danger events.

Vehicle Behavior
Water 1 foot (.3 m.) deep, will displace 1500 pounds (680 k.). So water 2 feet deep (.6 m.) will float the average sedan. Since drivers frequently have no idea how the deep the water is that they are approaching a good rule of prevention is "don't drive your vehicle through water when uncertain of the depth."

Another hazard is the scouring action of moving water. On the upstream side of raised roadways, the water tends to scour out the gravel and sand under the asphalt. Frequently the roadway appears intact... until the first car breaks through the asphalt crust and floats away. Drivers-even fire engineers and soldiers driving 11,000kg military trucks have no idea of the forces exerted by moving water. Water only a foot deep; moving at 12 miles per hour (20 kph) will move 4000 pounds-the weight of a sedan. Water 1 m. deep will move a fire engine sideways on asphalt, if it is moving at that speed. The water stacks up on the upstream side of the car, the same way that it does on any obstacle, raising a "cushion" that moves off each side of the car, creating negative pressure on the downstream side, an " eddy," or reversal in the current.

Drivers should exit the vehicle on the downstream side and move as fast as possible to high ground. If the water is too deep, passengers are better off on top of the car than inside. In situations where the vehicle rolls after it washes away, chances of survival are negligible. As soon as the vehicle moves off the roadway and starts to float away, odds of survival start to drop.

Sometimes the car will wedge against a tree or pole, in which case it is reasonably "stable." Sometimes the vehicle stays upright, in which case the front of the car sinks first, swinging the front of the car so that it faces upstream. If the bottom is soft, the weight of the engine, combined with the cushion and the scouring action of the water will usually force the front end underwater first, so that the water starts pouring up on the windshield. At this point, survival is still possible, even if the car is fully underwater, as long as rescuers can access the back or trunk (boot) of the car, and punch out the rear window. Caution is called for if this is attempted, since the sudden negative pressure on the inside of the car may blow out other windows and flush passengers out of the car. Some vehicles may float upright for some distance and time-usually around 45 seconds. When they reach "neutral" buoyancy, some vehicles may get hung up on branches and other underwater obstacles and actually " bob" up and down in the current, as the car did in the Virginia incident mentioned at the start of this article.

Finally rescuers may arrive and find an "unstable" vehicle, barely hung up, with several patients sitting on the roof. The hazard is that the negative buoyancy, the "stability" of the car, is due to the weight of the victims sitting on it. So, rescuing a few of them, maybe as little as one, at a time may make the vehicle positively buoyant, so that it again floats off downriver!

Rescue Organization
Flood rescue scenes involving victims in cars are usually chaotic, and, as mentioned, emotionally charged, with those trapped shouting for help, bystanders urging action, and, worst, television mini-cam crews.

Incident Command MUST follow the edicts above, conducting a thorough size up and hazard assessment, designating safety measures, determining the initial and secondary plans, and then giving clear orders to personnel. Incident Command System courses teach the utilization of an Incident Action Plan, or IAP, which should include, at the minimum:

 

• Incident Objectives
• Organization
• Logistics
• Safety message
• Communications Plan
  
  Modern public safety organizations have become over-reliant on the last, and tend to deemphasize the first, when the above order is most effective. The IC musters up his team leaders and gives them clear orders. When the plan goes into action, EVERYBODY on the scene should be able to answer five basic questions:
  
• Who am I working for?
• Who is working for me?
• What am I supposed to be doing?
• With what am I supposed to do it?
• How long am I supposed to do it?
  
  The answers to those five questions cover the five parts of the IAP. And while we all recognize that the plan will change as we go, we at least have clear direction at the start.
  

Rescue Alternatives
The rescue canon "Simpler is Safer" certainly applies to this kind of rescue work. Once safety measures have been taken, rescuers should attempt to communicate with the trapped passengers-by voice or loud speaker. If they are uninjured, and agile, and the car is stable, they should be encouraged to try to get on to the roof. If there is no roof rack, the victims are cold, elderly, or injured, and the water doesn't appear to be rising, it may be best to have them stay where they are. Next, if the car is close enough a thrown linemay be the best option. Life jackets can be tied to it and sent out to the passengers. If the vehicle appears unstable passengers should be encouraged to pull out a stronger rescue rope and tie the rope to the car, in order to provide some stabilization (Drawing D) Rescuers with throw lines should be deployed immediately downstream of the car. Again, if the passengers are young, and capable of holding on to the rope, rescuers may choose to simply swing them back to the shoreline holding on to the rope. NOTE: It may be equally dangerous for passengers to have a line around them in such conditions. Rescuers should suggest that passengers tie themselves to the line after taking into account such dangers. Wading rescues may be possible. Shallow water crossing techniques are taught in the Swiftwater/Flood Rescue Technician program and are beyond the scope of this article. Basic cautions, however, include: Working in groups-in line or huddle, or use a stick or pike pole for stabilization. When attempting a wading crossing, if the rescuer falls DO NOT attempt to put feet down and stand up again. Foot, ankle and knee injuries are common in such circumstances, and rescuers occasionally become foot entrapped. If the wading or throwing works, consider setting the line at an angle, so that it can be used to reach the car, or come back to shore. Set at such an angle if the rescuers or victims fall, they will simply slide down the line to its end.

Boat-based rescues have their own hazards. As mentioned in my earlier piece, the axiom taught in the Swiftwater/Flood Rescue Technician is" Don't go out in the river in that boat, unless you are prepared to get out of the middle of that river . . . without the boat." While many agencies have boats, most do not have the specific training needed for coxswains and deckhands in fast current, such boats are notorious for being underpowered; two-stroke outboards are ficklefailing at the exact wrong moment; most lower units don't have prop guards; and jet drives tend to suck debris. All good reasons for rescue agencies to have a simple inflatable raft- multichambered and self-bailing, such as the Oceanid RDC,-as a first alternative. After deploying a line from shore to shore, a simple boat and rope system can be set up. The boat can then be worked into the eddy on the downstream side of the car. Rescuers might consider simply working the boat out to the car with no attendant, but, again, if the victims appear to need assistance, those rescuers going in the boat need to be skilled enough in basic self-rescue skills such as swimming in current, to rescue themselves in the event that the car starts to move downstream and the ropes must be released. Also, it is CRITICAL that rescuers have IMMEDIATE access to a knife, so they can cut ropes as necessary.

If boat and rope systems won't work because of midstream obstructions, then a free boat rescue might be attempted. Inflatables, rigid-hulls, and RWCs (Rescue Water Craft) have all been used in these applications. Again work the downstream, eddy, side of the car. (Drawing F)

Helicopters become an alternative if distances, speed, or obstructions prevent access by boat; OR if the helicopter crew has the technical expertise. The reality is that helicopters are more mechanically reliable than boats. The piece that needs to be in place is the technical rescue skills. Over moving water, particularly at night, it is difficult for helicopter pilots and observers to hold station as the moving water creates spatial disorientation. If the pilot can hold station following the direction of the crew, then rescues are easiest by simply lowering a rescuer, or flying a rescuer out under the helicopter on a fixed line, securing the victims in a cinch collar one at a time, and flying them immediately to the bank. Hoisting operations take too long in such circumstances, and helicopter rescue educators discourage that alternative, as well as "one-skidding" on the roof of the car. In one incident in southern California, as police landed on the roof of a car, one of the skids dragged into the river, flipping the helicopter over. In the ensuing accident the victim died, and the observer lost an arm, sliced off by a flying piece of one of the main rotor blades.

Finally, getting the vehicle out of the water becomes a challenge. Remembering the weight of the water in the vehicle, it is probably best to secure a strap through the centre post on the opposite side, secure that to the tow truck cable, and tip the vehicle sideways. That way water can drain out and the axle becomes reachable. The attachment can then be moved to the axle and the vehicle dragged out of the river. Due to the weight, the use of a larger wrecker, rather than a standard tow truck is strongly advised. Many agencies have dive teams . It may be tempting to use SCUBA divers to conduct in-vehicle searches in moving water, however EXTREME CAUTION should be exercised in such operations. Several agency divers have died in such attempts in recent years. Full SCUBA gear is absolutely inappropriate for use in moving current without extensive training and preparations. Instead considering use small "pony" bottles, and only allow searchers to go inside the vehicle to arms length.

Conclusion
This article focuses on one small aspect of a much larger discipline, rescuing people from cars trapped in swiftwater and rising floodwaters. Major flood events are increasing in numbers and severity, and such rescues will happen more often and in more extreme circumstances. Training, practice, and proper equipment will make the difference between a straightforward rescue and an extended spectacle on the evening news. Agencies would be well advised to consider and prepare accordingly.