The Flood
It was to be the last hurrah because 2 weeks later, came the rains. The rain started on the Friday after 3 days of beautiful 60 degree plus weather. It continued through the night into the Saturday. Around 10am in the morning I received a text from our Fire Chief, saying that the water was 3 feet below the towns’ bridge and rising fast. He was calling on our towns’ swift water rescue team to be ready to go. With all the snow starting to melt and the relentless rain we were going to have a “fun” weekend.
I had a birthday party that Saturday evening which we headed out to. We arrived at the party and were welcomed by my pager going off. This was to be the first of many that evening. On the third incident, I decided that we had to leave and that I was going to try get through to the fire house to stand by. I swung onto Route 17, to head down to the fire house and was greeted by a police car pulled across both lanes. When I asked why he was there, he said that the road was closed due to flooding.
I took a detour over the mountain and after fording three really deep pools I made it Sterling Forest Fire Company. On walking in I received the usual torrent of banter about my not making the last calls and thanks for “finally” showing up. All in good fun of course. Within 30 minutes of my arrival the tones rang out – 2 vehicles trapped in the water on 17. We were on the road in minutes and on scene five minutes later. This was the first time I realized how bad the flooding was.
Route 17 was under a torrent of water that was flowing across in front of the police station into the Ramapo River. Huge logs, trash cans, and all manner of flotsam were being swept across the road like toys. Sure enough, right in the middle of this torrent, were two vehicles. Two of our guys donned the ice rescue suits*, connected rescue ropes and waded out to the cars. Thankfully the occupants had already escaped and reached dry ground, well… ground that had only been rained on… wasn’t underwater… you get the picture. We returned to the fire house and repacked the ropes.
Not long after, the tones sounded once more – vehicle in the water, potential water rescue! We were out on the road within a minute. This time, I donned the ice rescue suit whilst we hurried to the scene. When we got there, we saw a woman trapped in what was to become the deepest pool of water in the area over the next few hours, inside her Hyundai. Our fire truck had at least 4 foot of clearance before water would hit the air intakes so we drove straight into the puddle right up to her partially submerged vehicle. With ropes connected to our ice-rescue suits we jumped onto the roof of her car, ready to pull her out through the window. Within 40 seconds we had the poor lady out of her car, into the truck, where she was now warm and safe. We were all happy with a very slick rescue.
In the early morning on the Sunday we responded to another water rescue – a vehicle with two passengers. On arriving at the scene we saw a white Lexus with a woman hanging out the passenger window. Like a well oiled machine we went into action again. We reached the car and started preparing to remove her to safety. She seemed to be on her own. We asked if she was the only passenger, she said no, it was herself and him. We looked inside again and couldn’t see anyone. “Who?” we asked. A deep voice responded from the rear of the car, “Me”. It turned out to be a huge 6’5” 225lb man that was sitting in the trunk. We weren’t going to be able to carry this guy. Once we had everyone to shore, her carried, him walking, we were about to get everyone onto the fire truck when another water rescue call came in.
This time it was for a silver, Mercedes Benz. As we approached the car, we noticed headlights of yet another car in the middle of the “puddle”, only the lights were moving… sideways. It was a blue pick-up truck, and it was floating off the road into the swamp. We left the Merc driver where he was and moved to the truck. As we laid hands on it, it floated away. Not a single wheel was touching the ground and the driver was still inside. I held the vehicle in place, whilst my partner pulled the occupant out through the passenger window. We carried him back to the fire truck, and turned around just in time to see the truck sink under the water like a stricken ship. Gone!
The strangest thing is that many of the folks we rescued, said they saw a car make it through coming the other way. Either these were phantom cars or the head lights of the other cars that were stuck in the puddle coming the other direction. Even more interesting is that most of them were afraid to leave their windows open because of the rain … ummm … don’t know if they noticed the foot wells full of water or perhaps the lake the car was floating in the middle of.
In all we made 9 rescues that evening, and responded to 3 accidents. Throughout the night we had call after call, mostly for people who had circumnavigated the police barricades and tried to cross the “puddles”. From Mazda Miata’s to Dodge Ram’s they all succumbed to the freezing water.
* Ice rescue suits are puffy water proof dry-suits with fitted gloves and boots that make the wearer look like a mixture of the Michelin man and a Gummi Bear.
Labels: fire fighting, flooding, rescues
