ATCEMS gets more swift water rescue equipment after recent floods

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin-Travis County EMS now has more swift water rescue equipment to help keep first responders safe and help save lives. 

This comes after two years of floodwaters that tested rescue operations.

What they're saying:

At Emma Long Metropolitan Park, Austin-Travis County EMS was training on Thursday, because every drill is about being ready for the next emergency.

"In the summertime we get a ton of contact rescues or surfer water rescuers, so that's someone having some sort of trouble either on Lake Austin or Town Lake or Lake Travis, right, whether it be a boating accident or whether it'd be a paddleboarder who's fallen and who can't swim," ATCEMS Special Operations Force Captain Ross Copland said. "But we also get the swift water rescue component, which is what we saw in Kerrville, Sandy Creek, and what happened a couple of weeks ago."

Those calls are the reason Austin-Travis County EMS is putting more life-saving equipment into more hands. 

Thanks to a donation from Central Texas Public Safety Commission and their corporate sponsor, Covert Auto Group, the department is now outfitting every administrative vehicle with a personal flotation device and a throw bag. That is in addition to the gear already carried on ambulances, fire engines, and patrol cars, making sure crews not part of the special operations team have the tools to help if they are first on scene.

"What this allows us to do is it allows us to give them a PFD where they can work on the shore. They can put that PFD on, make sure that they're safe, so if they get swept away, we have a good opportunity of making a good rescue on them. Two, is if there is a victim in the water, they are able to grab the throw bag and then toss it to them and hopefully have them grab on and assist them to shore maybe before we get there," Captain Copland said.

This comes after a year that tested swift water rescuers across Texas.

ATCEMS deployed nearly a dozen team members to Kerrville last year for weeks, while also helping rescue 25 people from Big Sandy Creek in Central Texas.

"As someone who was in that water when Kerrville was at it, when the Guad was at its peak, and it was incredibly, I thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime response experience. I did not expect it to happen again the next year," Captain Copland said.

But, he said they learned a lot, trained, and went back out.

"We've probably gone out the door on state deployments as a boat team, I would say seven times this year at least, for up to 14 days apiece, so, we had, you know, at least three guys deployed pretty much at some point throughout the summer, multiple different times," Captain Copland said.

Now, more crews will have more tools to help save lives.

"If you find yourself in swift water, especially without a PFD, your opportunity for survival is almost nothing, so having a PFB really makes a huge difference," Captain Copland said.

Copland said he is training everyone who will get this new equipment and then distribute them, so they are prepared for the next event.

"Covert Auto Group is proud to be a partner of the Central Texas Public Safety Commission and sponsor critical public safety resources for our community, like the new swift water gear for Austin-Travis County EMS. Funding public safety initiatives is about more than dollars, it’s about standing behind the dedicated women and men who stand for all of us." Covert Auto Group managing partner Brad Elliot said in a statement.

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