Flood and Swiftwater Rescue

Flood and Swiftwater are sub-specialities of our 'Water SAR / Rescue' training section.

Flood and Swiftwater rescue operations are often considered unique and special types of incidents and they can have a range of different factors and hazards that make them one of the most demanding technical rescue operations to manage and respond to.

They can occur in what would be 'wilderness' or 'country' areas - away from the beaten path or track like rivers, lakes and seas and even in urbanised built up areas like towns and villages. Subsequently, responders will have to be able to adapt to the environment and hazards and terrain and also many different agencies may be technically 'responsible' for the area or jurisdiction.

Therefore it is often a combined agency response from an Incident Management perspective and rarely does one agency claim full mandate for all flood or water rescues when the situation is unexpected or a sudden onset disaster. But the opposite may be true when you have for example, a team of lifeguards, that patrol along a beach or surf area.

Water Search and Rescue activities in relation to Disaster Response is one of the many areas we teach and train in. Responding to earthquakes which causes tsunamis (such as the 2004 Boxing day Tsunami in the Indian Ocean or the 2011 Tsunami in Japan following the massive Earthquake) are very hazardous and dangerous. Similarly monsoon rains causing flash flooding (such as the Pakistan Floods in 2010 (see picture below)) - Hurricane Katrina in the USA.