In an old Scots poem, two rivers – fast-running Tweed and slow-flowing Till – compare their ability to claim human lives. Tweed boasts of its swiftness and asks Till why it runs so slowly. Till replies that although it runs slowly, it claims twice as many victims: ‘Though ye rin we speed an I rin slaw, where ye droon yin man, I droon twa’. [‘Though you run with speed and I run slow, where you drown one man, I drown two’.]

The point that the (unknown) poet is making is that the deceptive allure of slow-flowing waters can be more lethal than intimidating, fast-running streams. Still waters, as the proverb goes, run deep. Most search and rescue (SAR) professionals would agree.

Given the right combination of factors, though, any watercourse – no matter how small – can turn in a terrifyingly short space of time into a swift-moving torrent capable of tearing down buildings, sweeping away vehicles, and resulting in numerous casualties, as we saw in recent months, with Storm Daniel (September 2023) and Storm Ciarán (November 2023) introducing the meteorological terms ‘Medistorm’, ‘Medicane’ (Mediterranean hurricane) and ‘bomb cyclone’ to the mainstream media vocabulary.

Storm Daniel caused extensive flooding in Greece, Bulgaria and Turkey, and above all in Libya, resulting in at least 4,000 and perhaps as many as 20,000 deaths. Storm Ciarán, described as a bomb cyclone, struck the UK and mainland Europe, with particularly severe flooding in northern Italy.

In a media-saturated world, residents of the world’s more temperate zones, such as Europe, have grown used to images of life-threatening floods in tropical and sub-tropical regions, such as India and Australia. Events over the last two years, though, should alert SAR entities to the new reality that massive flooding can and will happen almost anywhere. Fortunately, SAR operators are generally aware of this trend and already include swiftwater training in their training procedures. Ian Bonthrone, Managing Director of Air Rescue UK, said: "Swiftwater rescue training is often included in standard SAR training, in particular where the operation is coastal or already covers large bodies of swift moving water. Over the past 10 years, climate change has resulted in excessive rainfall resulting in unprecedented flooding and flash spates in waterways that have not, in the past, given rise to the need for specific swiftwater rescue. Operators in those largely inland areas have identified needs for additional training for rare but consequential events."

Operators in those largely inland areas have identified needs for additional training for rare but consequential events

Extreme weather events

As the climate crisis intensifies, such weather events are likely to strike the densely populated Mediterranean region – among the world’s most popular mass tourism destinations – more frequently, according to climate scientists. In its sixth annual assessment report, published in 2023, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that global warming will strengthen storms like Daniel and bring them more often to Mediterranean shores.

It is frightening to imagine what might have happened if Daniel had spent its full force on the Athens conurbation, with a population of almost four million people, instead of on less densely populated northern mainland and island regions.

In Greece, which has a well-organized and well-equipped SAR capacity, the floods caused fewer than 20 fatalities. On the other side of the Mediterranean, the torrential rains caused devastation when two dams collapsed, virtually destroying the Libyan city of Derna, which may alone have seen as many as 4,000 deaths. In October, Indian Army helicopters rescued hundreds in Sikkim, northeast India, after floodwaters breached the state’s largest hydro-electric dam, the latest in a series of floods in 2023 caused by unusually heavy seasonal rains. The death toll may be as high as 200. In California, Tropical Storm Hilary in August triggered flash flood warnings across that state – the first time in almost a century that California has been hit by such an extreme weather event.

The value of teamwork

What, then, can SAR agencies do to increase their preparedness for such events? Perhaps surprisingly for an operator in flood-prone

Our organization has the necessary equipment and expertise to help people in distress in these situations

Switzerland, Swiss Air-Rescue Rega rarely performs rescue missions on water, said its spokesperson David Suchet. Its crews, however, are specially trained in-house in the use of equipment carried onboard helicopters for water rescues, ranging from Lifesaver inflatable buoyancy aids to rescue slings. “Our organization has the necessary equipment and expertise to help people in distress in these situations,” Suchet said. In terms of specialized swiftwater rescue equipment, there have been no radical innovations since AirMed&Rescue last looked at this topic (Issue 92, October/November 2018).

Events since then, though, have highlighted the need for training and interagency coordination. As an example, when in July 2021 northern Germany was struck by the worst ever floods to hit the country, ADAC Luftrettung, the German armed forces (Bundeswehr), and DRF Luftrettung combined to operate more than 200 rescue missions. Helicopter operator HTM, working with the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, provided live mapping of the flooded areas using H135 rotorcraft fitted with specialized camera systems, giving first responders vital updates. More than 250 people were rescued by hoist or winch. Both techniques, of course, require a high degree of teamwork between pilot and operator and an equally high level of training. SAR personnel may also need enhanced people skills to evacuate civilian flood victims. While cases being lifted from vessels at sea or offshore installations such as oil rigs are likely to be younger, physically active, and have themselves some level of training and preparedness for such operations, many of those rescued from floods on land may be elderly people, children or infants and totally unprepared.

This was an instance of teamwork at its best at all levels. As such events become more frequent, expect SAR agencies and providers of specialist flood rescue training companies to recruit and train more personnel in the use of tried and tested technologies, primarily winch rescue and more complex dynamic hoist operations.

Training and accreditation

One major player in the technical rescue training field is Rescue 3 Europe, which claims to be the world’s largest technical rescue accrediting body. With more than 300 training providers and around 2,500 instructors worldwide, Rescue 3 has written, accredited and overseen training courses for around 50,000 qualified students in the last three years (and more than half a million since it was launched in 1979). One course that’s seeing increased interest is Swiftwater and Flood Operations for Search and Rescue Helicopter Personnel, or SARHELO.

“We are definitely seeing an increase in the number of SARHELO courses the world over, as well as general growth in the number of Rescue 3 courses,” said Operations Manager Keith Dudhnath. “2022 was previously the busiest year in terms of numbers of Rescue 3 courses, but 2023 to date has already surpassed 2022’s total,” he said.

The rise in severe weather events such as major floods has acted as a wake-up call for many players in the SAR field, he agreed. “There are many factors in this growth, including the increase in extreme weather events, and organizations’ awareness of the need for high-quality training, and supporting resources.

The rise in severe weather events such as major floods has acted as a wake-up call for many players in the SAR field

“They also see the value in an external accreditation framework, course standards and learning outcomes, which draw on experts from around the world, feeding into the Rescue 3 Curriculum Development Committee, to ensure all the courses reflect up-to-date best practice," said Dudhnath.

The Rescue 3 SARHELO course is designed for helicopter personnel who may be tasked with attending a swiftwater or flood incident, and has been delivered for more than 10 years in the UK and across Europe.

“Clients for the SARHELO courses come from all the expected branches of helicopter operators within their countries of operation,” Dudnath said. “We have also worked closely with Rescue 3 instructors from Yorkshire Air Ambulance on helicopter content for instructor update videos that were watched by every Rescue 3 water instructor worldwide, both those who specifically deliver the SARHELO course, and those who deliver other Rescue 3 water courses, where a broad awareness of working with helicopters is useful."

Bonthrone agreed that the need for high quality training is paramount, explaining the use of high fidelity simulation is critical to ensuring that trainees get the authenticity required to prepare them for real-life rescues: "Bluedrop Training and Simulation’s suite of software allows us and our partners to recreate situations to immerse the trainee in the scenario. We are able to generate almost any geographic location, climatic event and weather conditions so that the training is as realistic as is possible for each operator. Moreover, to enable lessons to be learned after an event, we can model any event so that it can be re-run to enhance procedures, improve safety and to create mental models for future crews who were not involved in the original incident.

Pressure on budgets

Drones may also have an increasingly important part to play. Rega’s drone system, deployed in autumn 2021 and specifically designed for SAR missions, has obvious uses in locating persons requiring rescue, whether over large areas of flooded terrain or along fast-flowing watercourses. In Nepal, UK training company Technical Rescue International has been involved in supplying the Himalayan Rescue Association with its first drone and training operators in a range of SAR skills, including swiftwater rescue.

Drones may also have an increasingly important part to play

“Drones have changed the way the rescue teams we work with operate, meaning they can have critical air coverage at a much lower cost,” observed Ross Laing, Director of UK-based Edinburgh Drone Company, which supplied the Himalayan Rescue Association’s DJI Mavic 2 drone. “This means vulnerable people are found quicker and with less human risk during the search.”

Often, the same government/federal agencies tasked with dealing with wildfires – such as the New South Wales State Emergency Service, or the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) – are also tasked with rescuing people from floods, yet those tasks are somewhat different in terms of aircraft, technical equipment and crew skills, so specialized training as well as specialized equipment is vital.

As well as specialized training, new and alternative methods of training are being adopted as the technology becomes available, particularly for swiftwater training, Bonthrone explained: "Helicopter rescue is

New and alternative methods of training are being adopted as the technology becomes available

complex by nature, that complexity is increased when moving vessels and swift moving water are introduced. Static towers, while useful for basic procedures and cabin exit and entry cannot simulate that complexity. Live training is invaluable, but it has drawbacks – it is costly, dependent on serviceable aircraft, and in some jurisdictions the allowable risk for training is far lower than what would be allowed on operations. Additionally the training output, when multiple crews are to be trained, can vary depending on the conditions at the time of the sortie. Through the use of simulators, you are not restricted by aircraft availability and cost is significantly lowered and, more importantly, scenarios can be completed in a perceived high-risk environment while the real risk is reduced to zero.  Moreover every crew can train in the exact same environmental and flight conditions as each other and on multiple bodies of water. As a result, the output level of training can be measured across peers so that the operator and regulator can be assured that training has been equal."

The Los Angeles River, flowing through the heart of a conurbation with a population of around 13 million people, looks like little more than a trickle of water at the bottom of a wide concrete culvert. It can, though, occasionally fill with rapidly moving water and present a serious hazard. The LAFD uses boats, floats and jet skis as well as helicopters to rescue people (and sometimes animals) from rushing water and comprises personnel with special training and equipment, but the department emphasizes that its Swift Water Rescue Team is ‘more than just apparatus’.

Understandably, for budgetary reasons, many state entities tasked with flood rescue tend to favor investment in surface vessels and vehicles over aircraft. Under pressure to strengthen its flood rescue fleet following record flooding last year, the New South Wales State Emergency Service began taking delivery in November 2023 of almost 200 new inflatable rescue boats and specialized vehicles as part of a A$25 million fleet upgrade. That budget would buy just two new H145 rotorcraft.

Worldwide, the emphasis from governments and other agencies seems to be on flood prevention and impact reduction through better management of flood plains and watercourses. That will require massive investment and political will, and could take decades. In the meantime, those responsible for SAR in flood conditions will be looking to recruit new personnel, upskill existing personnel and achieve even greater interagency coordination to cope with the next big deluge, wherever it may occur.