A tragedy is unfolding in West Virginia.  A firefighter is missing and presumed dead after a boat flipped in flood waters during a flood response.  A lot of details are missing, but with the possiblity of major floods in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast looming, there are a few rules that can save you life if you respond to a flood.

1) Wear a PFD (personal floatation device)   Wearing a properly-fitting PFD is the most important thing you can do to increase your own chances of survival.  Select the right PFD type.  A Type III or Swiftwater Type V are the best choices.  Type IIIs are work PFDs.  If you've seen a photo of a Coast Guard boat crew or a Bassmaster's tournament, you've seen nType III PFDs.  Swiftwater Type Vs are shown here.

Swiftwater Rescuer wearing a Swiftwater Rescue Type V PFD

2) Stay out of the water.  If you can make the rescue by throwing a rope, extending a pike pole, or by bridging a short distance with a ladder, do it.   The water is the most dangerous place to be.  Staying out of the water reduces the number of potential victims.

3) Do Not Wear Turnout Gear!!!  If turnout gear helped you swim, Michael Phelps would wear it in the Olympics.  Turnout gear will impair your ability to swim and will quickly exhaust you.  If you've taken a class where you fell into a pool wearing turnout gear and a SCBA, don't be fooled into thinking a flood is the same environment, or that a flooded river has a shallow end.  There's an old saying that if a lifeguard showed up at a structure fire wearing a PFD and a wetsuit, we'd laugh him off of the scene.  Wearing turnout gear to a water rescue is the same ridiculous proposition in reverse.  Fire helmets can drown you or injure your neck in moving water.  If the choice is a fire helmet or no helmet, wear no helmet.

4)  If you use a boat for flood rescue, use one that is designed for moving water.  Small boats that are OK for calm, flat water such as a lake are often bad choices in floods.  If you have a local whitewater rafting company, their boats, equipment, and river guides may be able to help.

Self-Bailing Whitewater Raft

5) Don't overload the boat.  If the boat is full of rescuers, you don't leave room for the victims.

6)  Don't underestimate the water's power.  The river is stronger than you are!!!  Rivers run at several thousand cubic feet per second. (CFS)  Water weighs more than 62 pounds per cubic foot.  A 1,000 CFS river has 31 tons of water per second passing that bridge you're standing on.  Unless you have a 32 ton body, the river will overpower you.

7) Don't tie yourself into a rope and then enter the water.  This has killed firefighters.  The river is stronger than your buddies.  If you get caught on an obstacle the river will win the tug-of-war for your body with your buddies.  Swiftwater rescuers who use tethered swimming techniques use a special quick-release harness that requires special training and practice.  If you don't have the special PFD, training, and experience, don't try this.

8) Don't risk live firefighters for dead victims.  You can find the victims' bodies after the water recedes and you can do it without killing firefighters.

9) Don't turn a swiftwater rescue into a dive incident.  Surface rescue from moving water is a much different proposition than underwater recovery.  Scuba gear is too heavy and bulky for swiftwater, and most dive regulators will free-flow in strong currents.  That will quickly exhaust the diver's air, but it will give him a few minutes more to know he's going to die needlessly.

10) Get the right training and equipment before the flood.  If the flood is anticipated for tomorrow, it's too late to get the equipment and it may be too late to get the equipment.  Find someone that does have the right equipment and training, call them, and have them pre-position where they can help you instead of killing your own troops.

11) Use common sense.  If the victims are in a safe place, but isolated by the flood, leave them in that safe place.

12)  Look Upstream, Rope Downstream.  Have at least one lookout scanning the water upstream of the rescue site.  A tree or propane tank being swept downstream can be a disaster if you don't have warning that it is coming.  Put rescuers downstream with throw ropes as a backup in case rescuers fall into the water.  Swimmers can grasp the rope and the river will swing them to safety as long as there are no downstream obstacles in the way.  Position the rope throwers where there are no obstacles.  Use water rescue throw bags with floating rope.  The floating rope is less likely to submerge and be caught on obstacles.

Even well-trained and well-equipped firefighters and paramedics sometimes die attempting swiftwater rescues, but very rarely.  "Fortune favors the prepared..."  Louis Pasteur

If you are interested in swiftwater rescue, the SwiftH20News group on Yahoo has a lot of good information, news, and commentary from a diverse group of swiftwater rescuers and instructors.