bigkavr
Well-known member
It's 11: 58 on a Wednseday night and the pager goes off, "Ballville Fire and Airboat One, You have a water rescue of a car and driver trapped in high water on South River road". It's 18 degrees out and all the rivers in this part of the State are OVER flood stage, this is not going to be a warm and fuzzy rescue...
We arrive on scene to find the river flowing about 2 feet OVER the roadway and moving at about 15 MPH.. We cannot see the vehicle, but the driver is in cell phone communication with one of his relatives on scene so we know he's still alive. (hypothermic, but alive)
We unloaded the airboat in the middle of the roadway, spun it around and with two rescuers aboard, we ventured out into the swiftwater to find the car and driver.
The vehicle was only 300 yards away, but because of the trees and such, couldn't be seen from the launch point.. We approached the car and noticed the driver huddled in a tight ball, on the hood. He was not in good shape since he was wet from the waist down and has been sitting on the hood for about 40 minutes... We approached from downstream and were able to hold the airboat against the front fender of the car while my rescurers helped the driver into the airboat.
After making sure everyone was in their assiged places, we made our way back to the launch pont. The paramedics whisked the victim away to the hospital, where luckily, he sustained only some frostbite to his toes, (he was wearing sandels!)
Now fast forward two day to Friday evening, same location. "Ballville Fire and Airboat One, you have a semi-truck stuck in the high water on South River Road" This truck driver went around the baracades and tried to drive a fully loaded semi through 2 feet of very fast moving water.. Mother Nature won round one... The moving water pushed the truck sideways about 8 feet off the road!! Now he's traped with rushing water coming up OVER his fuel tanks and into the door... Once again, we deployed the airboat with two rescuers and were able to come up on the passenger door (down stream side) and hold position while the rescuers got the driver to put on a PFD and then get into the airboat.
Some estimates are that OVER 98% of all swiftwater rescues are because drivers ignore or go around baracades that have been placed there to protect them.
TURN AROUND, DONT DROWN!!
Two rescues that the airboat made look relatively simple. If we would have had to utilize our inflatable, the rescues would have been major undertaking..
Thank You Faron and Stan at American Airboat!!
So far this year (2008) we've recovered a brand new snowmoble from 15 feet of water in the middle of the river and now two rescues.. this doesn't include over 9 standbys that we've been called to in just the last week alone... This year is starting out GREAT!!!
Oh yea, for you warm blooded folks (Cherpa and others) I did some swiftwater practice today (while the river was slowly going down). The temp was 9 degrees with a sustained wind speed of 26 MPH. Gusts of 44 MPH (chill factor was below -30). I had to cut my training short (after aboout a half hour) because the props were getting too iced up from the water spray.. Each wire on the entire cage was over a half inch thick from ice as was the rest of the airboat. The weight was getting critical as was the performance of the iced prop blades so I wisely went back to the launch site.. Got to admit, it was a mite cold... Aw hell, who am I kidding, it was fricking freezing..... But damn good training...
Just wanted you guys to know that we can have fun up here too...
Ccccccold, but fffffun.... :wink:
Brian.
PS, any typos are because my damn fingers still haven't thawed out...
We arrive on scene to find the river flowing about 2 feet OVER the roadway and moving at about 15 MPH.. We cannot see the vehicle, but the driver is in cell phone communication with one of his relatives on scene so we know he's still alive. (hypothermic, but alive)
We unloaded the airboat in the middle of the roadway, spun it around and with two rescuers aboard, we ventured out into the swiftwater to find the car and driver.
The vehicle was only 300 yards away, but because of the trees and such, couldn't be seen from the launch point.. We approached the car and noticed the driver huddled in a tight ball, on the hood. He was not in good shape since he was wet from the waist down and has been sitting on the hood for about 40 minutes... We approached from downstream and were able to hold the airboat against the front fender of the car while my rescurers helped the driver into the airboat.
After making sure everyone was in their assiged places, we made our way back to the launch pont. The paramedics whisked the victim away to the hospital, where luckily, he sustained only some frostbite to his toes, (he was wearing sandels!)
Now fast forward two day to Friday evening, same location. "Ballville Fire and Airboat One, you have a semi-truck stuck in the high water on South River Road" This truck driver went around the baracades and tried to drive a fully loaded semi through 2 feet of very fast moving water.. Mother Nature won round one... The moving water pushed the truck sideways about 8 feet off the road!! Now he's traped with rushing water coming up OVER his fuel tanks and into the door... Once again, we deployed the airboat with two rescuers and were able to come up on the passenger door (down stream side) and hold position while the rescuers got the driver to put on a PFD and then get into the airboat.
Some estimates are that OVER 98% of all swiftwater rescues are because drivers ignore or go around baracades that have been placed there to protect them.
TURN AROUND, DONT DROWN!!
Two rescues that the airboat made look relatively simple. If we would have had to utilize our inflatable, the rescues would have been major undertaking..
Thank You Faron and Stan at American Airboat!!
So far this year (2008) we've recovered a brand new snowmoble from 15 feet of water in the middle of the river and now two rescues.. this doesn't include over 9 standbys that we've been called to in just the last week alone... This year is starting out GREAT!!!
Oh yea, for you warm blooded folks (Cherpa and others) I did some swiftwater practice today (while the river was slowly going down). The temp was 9 degrees with a sustained wind speed of 26 MPH. Gusts of 44 MPH (chill factor was below -30). I had to cut my training short (after aboout a half hour) because the props were getting too iced up from the water spray.. Each wire on the entire cage was over a half inch thick from ice as was the rest of the airboat. The weight was getting critical as was the performance of the iced prop blades so I wisely went back to the launch site.. Got to admit, it was a mite cold... Aw hell, who am I kidding, it was fricking freezing..... But damn good training...
Just wanted you guys to know that we can have fun up here too...
Ccccccold, but fffffun.... :wink: Brian.
PS, any typos are because my damn fingers still haven't thawed out...
