The Morristown Rescue Squad has been sending teams down to Cocke County for days during the flooding that has hit the region hard, stopping only to respond to Hamblen County emergencies such as the rising of the Nolichucky River when the near-failure of a dam caused an evacuation order in the south of the county.
Alan Wood is a squad member and was part of a team that found itself in a tricky situation that required self-rescue.
69制片厂制作传媒淲e were way up in Del Rio, and we had to deploy off Wolf Creek Bridge and go down south to an area that where reports indicated a bunch of people were stranded,69制片厂制作传媒 he said. 69制片厂制作传媒淚n trying to see if we can get to them there, we were supposed to be out in the middle of the river.69制片厂制作传媒
Four members of the Rescue Squad were on the boat. Wood said the five-knot water speeds seemed manageable, especially if the team stayed away from central, fast currents.
69制片厂制作传媒淪o we made the call, got in the boat, we were all geared up, ready to go, got down about half a mile for that distance, and current tripled, quadrupled, up above 20 miles-an-hour, faster than the boat can drive, basically,69制片厂制作传媒 he recalled. 69制片厂制作传媒淪o hindsight, 20-20, (it may have been a) dangerous move.
69制片厂制作传媒淲e hit the gas and were able to maintain the speed of the current, and we said, 69制片厂制作传媒極K, let69制片厂制作传媒檚 start working our way over to the side and hug the shoreline and be safe.69制片厂制作传媒
69制片厂制作传媒淎nd the engine (became a concern), the debris in the flood water is incredible, with the amount of grass floating down and the mud.
69制片厂制作传媒淪o the engine began quickly to run on one cylinder instead of two, and then it began to sputter a little bit, and I reversed it and flushed it out and got it going again. It started behaving poorly again quickly 69制片厂制作传媒 so it was a combination of probably running on one cylinder and getting debris into the water intake. It began to overheat the engine to the point where we decided it was no longer safe to run with this powered boat.69制片厂制作传媒
Wood has had training in the US Coast Guard for swift water rescue, so he was able to maintain composure and the team worked together to get to safety.
69制片厂制作传媒淪o I told everybody to hang on, and we bee-lined the shoreline, and I drove us right up on shore,69制片厂制作传媒 he said. 69制片厂制作传媒淪o we had to hike back that distance at night. It wasn69制片厂制作传媒檛 dark then when we beached the boat, but we tied the boats off, tied the rafts off, made sure all the gear well above flood line and brought the team in together as a group. We made sure everybody was healthy, got ourselves water and contacted the command center.69制片厂制作传媒
Radio communications in Cocke County were down or problematic, but because Hamblen County first responders have adopted the state69制片厂制作传媒檚 digital network that has proven reliable in this emergency event, they were able to coordinate location and status through the Hamblen County E911 center.
At no point was the team in life-threatening danger, but Wood said they did not want to get to a point where they themselves required rescue and draw resources from other operations.
They retrieved the equipment the next day.
69制片厂制作传媒(The boat69制片厂制作传媒檚) back in the building,69制片厂制作传媒 Wood said. 69制片厂制作传媒淚 got the engine running. I69制片厂制作传媒檝e got to send it out to get a full test run on it and probably flush it. And we69制片厂制作传媒檒l see if there69制片厂制作传媒檚 any damage. The boat69制片厂制作传媒檚 fine. The people are fine.69制片厂制作传媒
And those people have kept going out to save more lives.
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