EMERGENCY (UN)PREPARED SWIFT-WATER RESCUE PROGRAMS SAVE LIVES.

Byline: Nancy J. Rigg Local View

I woke at about 5:15 thinking about Gary Sauls, the visionary swift-water rescue coordinator for the San Gabriel Fire Department. Gary was dying from end-stage brain cancer, and even as scores of California swift-water rescuers were fighting to save lives in the flood zone along the Gulf Coast, Gary was fighting for one more moment, one more hour to live.

After wiping away tears, I closed my eyes and attempted to go back to sleep. Counting backwards from 1,000, I struggled to calm my agitated mind. But counting only intensified my sorrow as the faces of Hurricane Katrina's victims pressed in on me - 1,000 dead, 999 dead, 998 dead.

You would think, based on the news coverage, that this is the first time that something like this has happened. But in every major flooding disaster worldwide, this tragedy has played itself out time and again. Those who faced Katrina's wrath alone as their homes filled with water are not the first to have felt abandoned.

In 1980, my fiance, Earl Higgins, lost his life attempting to rescue a child who was swept down the flood-swollen Los Angeles River. There was no swift-water rescue program then, and the trauma of watching the man I loved get swept past rescuers who had neither the training nor equipment needed to help him is something that will linger in my mind forever. The child survived by some miracle, but Earl's remains were not recovered until nine months later.

Countless others have died driving their vehicles into flooded roadway ``low water'' crossings, getting swept off of bridges, or trapped in the churning hydraulics of low-head dams - notorious ``drowning machines'' that have killed victims and would-be rescuers alike. Almost all deaths in floodwaters are compounded by the lack of qualified swift-water rescuers being available to respond.

Improvements in the way cities, states, and the federal government plan for and respond to lifesaving rescues in floods have been made over the years, but progress has been slow. Los Angeles launched its pioneering multi-agency swift-water rescue program in 1992 following the death of 15-year-old Adam Bischoff, whose final journey down the flood-swollen Los Angeles River was captured by news cameras.

But it is shameful to note that, to date, only three states - California, Texas and North Carolina - have implemented statewide flood and swift-water rescue programs. And while some cities are beginning to recognize the value of flood-rescue preparedness, unfortunately, the ``we need help now, bring a boat'' approach to flood rescue in New Orleans is still the norm.

There has been a lot of finger-pointing in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but this debacle began at the local level and worsened as water poured into town. In the written disaster plans for New Orleans, there is no mention at all of the need for water-rescue resources in the event of a hurricane-spawned flood like the one caused by Katrina.

No water rescue. In a massive flood. Go figure.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has taken a beating, but to its credit, the agency quickly deployed all eight of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Management Swiftwater Rescue Task Force Teams, including teams from the Los Angeles city and county fire departments. This represents the first time in history that swift-water rescue teams have been deployed as federal assets. According to FEMA officials, the swift-water rescue task force teams have rescued more than 3,000 people in New Orleans thus far.

Still, swift-water rescue teams should have been deployed sooner, not brought in after 80 percent of New Orleans was under water. This was yet another tactical error that likely cost lives.

Gary Sauls knew this.

He had looked into the eyes of children being swept away. He knew that it takes less than 30 seconds for a child to drown. And there's rarely any noise, or cry for help.

After Adam Bischoff drowned, Gary took a stand and never wavered, never backed down, never let our swift-water rescue program fall into total disrepair. He helped write the response protocols for the Los Angeles County Multi-Agency Swiftwater Rescue Task Force, stressing predeployment. He understood that you have to be in place to rescue people. Chasing after them never works.

When someone is drowning, time is of the essence.

I continue to toss and turn, meditating on the grim task of recovering and identifying the remains of those who were swept to their deaths in Hurricane Katrina. But in the midst of this march of souls was Gary Sauls, a man who had fought the good fight, not just against cancer - a scourge on its own - but against ambivalence as well.

When questions would arise - like, ``Why should we fund costly swift- water rescue programs when we don't need to rescue people that often?'' - Gary never blinked. He stood up and said we should fund these programs and train anybody and everybody who might be called to respond in the flood zone, because lives are on the line.

And it's the right thing to do.

If there is no other lesson learned from Hurricane Katrina, the implementation of a National Flood and Swiftwater Rescue Response Program must be a top priority.

As the nation reels in the aftermath of one of the worst flood disasters in U.S. history, Gary Sauls, one of our pioneers in swift-water rescue, recently joined Earl Higgins and Adam Bischoff and all the little ones and old people and regular folk who just couldn't hang on long enough in Hurricane Katrina until water rescuers got to them.

Heaven must be a very busy place right now.

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Photo:

(color) Rescue boats were in the water Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans.

James Nielsen/AFP/Getty Images