Swannanoa Fire Department & Black Mountain Fire Department combined resources to provide rescue services to the victims of Hurricane Floyd. Swannanoa provided 3 rescuers and a zodiac rescue boat and Black Mountain provided 2 personnel and a crewcab pickup. The following is a collection of some photos taken during the trip.

After sleeping on an airport runway after the drive to the East Coast, the first day of missions began. Areas of the Tick Bite community had not been scouted yet and some people in the area were still contemplating their decision to leave or stay with the still rising water.
Launching a boat like our Zodiac can prove difficult in certain areas. A launch vehicle would have to back a long way down a road to get proper depth for launch. The problem was settled by backing the trailer at an angle into a ditchline, where there was greater depth, launching the boat and travelling down the ditch with the prop just below the water line. It is an odd experience to drive a boat around mailboxes and street signs.

The crews had difficulty in this area with the varying depths. Some areas we were wading & pulling the boat, others travelling the ditch and some where we had to pull the boat through a yard or across railroad tracks into other water to continue the mission. Several animals in the area were rescued by ourselves, the National Guard and other crews. Some dogs were still tied up in the rising water. At times, we would pull up to the front of a house and ask the person standing in the doorway if they were ready to leave. If they said no, yould could bet that most would change their mind as they watched their last chance for a ride start to pull away. We approached some areas where there was a long distance on land to get to houses, although they were surrounded by water. The photo to the left shows one of the docking points with the boat tied off to a mailbox.

We experienced some boat motor trouble and was lucky and extremely greatful for a local mechanics assistance in the repairs after missions that day. Later missions during the trip were placements in strategic locations awaiting the need for rescues. We were assigned to assist the Hugo Fire Department in the area around their community. The Chief and all the personnel with the Hugo FD provided some of the best hospitality you could hope for. It was the first showers we had in at least two days and they kept us full of food. We were reassigned later to assist rescues at a water treatment facility.

One of the lessons learned from the experience was that their is no perfect piece of equipment to perform flood rescues in this environment or area. During the first missions of the trip, we would have preffered a smaller boat which would have been easier to deploy and drag through the yards. During other missions, the stability, working platform and turnaround times of the Zodiac were exceptional and we would not have felt quite as safe in the larger water in a smaller boat.

For our last mission we were operating with a Task Force made up of personnel from the Greensboro FD and Forsyth County Rescue Squad. Resources consisted of our Zodiac, 2 Aluminum boats, 1 Personal Watercraft and 1 Hovercraft.
Workers at the water treatment facility had been attempting to keep the facility going but were loosing ground with the rising water. We launched the Zodiac from an area near a bridge where the water depth was over halfway up on powerpoles. The travel distance was well over a mile to reach the plant. We had limited time before dark and had several people to transport. This area was much more suited for the Zodiac with it's payload and speed. The zodiac and the PWC worked as a pair with the PWC acting as a follow along, scout and safety backup in case of problems with the Zodiac. The 2 aluminum boats and the Hovercraft teamed up and worked at their turnaround speeds. Multiple trips were made on the Tar River.