Manchester swiftwater rescue team adapted on the fly during hurricane deployment

Nov. 14—Raging rivers and creeks. Treacherous mudslides. Technical rescues of people and pets.

Not your average trip to the Tar Heel State. But all in a day's (or 12 days) work for members of the Manchester Fire Department's swiftwater rescue team.

Ten members of the team held a mission debriefing session Thursday at Manchester Fire headquarters for city and state officials, where they discussed details of their deployment to help save children and adults who were trapped in North Carolina as Hurricane Helene moved through the region.

The deployment of the team — consisting of two boats and 10 people — was overseen by the New Hampshire Department of Homeland Security Emergency Management, after their help was requested by FEMA through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) agreement.

EMAC facilitates state to state assistance in times of disasters.

The team's objectives while on site were:

—Conduct search and rescue operations.

—Provide basic life support medical care and transport people and animals to the nearest location for secondary air or land transport.

—Provide shore-based and boat-based water rescue.

—Provide animal rescues and support helicopter and urban search and rescue in water environments.

Initially thought to be a seven-day deployment, the team was gone from Sept. 26 through Oct. 7.

Kevin Grebinar handled logistics for the team during the deployment. He said the training members go through for different types of rescue scenarios all came into play.

"We were thrown a number of curveballs as we went there, and these guys didn't bat an eyelash at it," Grebinar said. "They just swung and they hit home runs, and they did a great job at that."

Grebinar said shortly after the team arrived in Boone, North Carolina, they responded to a call for an adult female located in a large building approximately 1,500 feet to the rear of the Boone Fire Department. The waterways from the South Fork New River had swollen, flooding the area. Two boats were launched, each with a crew of four rescuers. Forcible entry was made into the building and the woman was extracted to shore. Crews had to work in currents from the flooded river heavy with large debris causing stalling issues with the jet propulsion systems, Grebinar said.

The team then responded to an incident in Boone where a family was trapped in their home, which was severely compromised from the river and another home which had a catastrophic collapse and was now a debris pile.

Team members set up a basic rope system and made entry to the structure, ultimately rescuing one adult female, an adult male and male toddler from the structure.

Grebinar said the incident calls the team responded to were very different from fires or other calls they get in Manchester.

"The fire department is inherently capable of taking a bag of bolts and making a Picasso, and that happened on a daily basis down there," Grebinar said. "And I would think that you could throw that bag of bolts on the floor here, and all seven of these guys would build a Picasso for you. So I think it's just that capability, of taking something that's a problem, making it a lot better, and doing it fluidly. There was never any stress, everybody just did their job.

"I think it's just based on the experience that they have, the capabilities that they have, the training that they've done, they're just able to put it all together in a rapid fashion."

Manchester Fire Chief Ryan Cashin said he "couldn't be prouder of the guys that were on this deployment."

"They responded and they adapted quickly to situations that we were not predicting going down, and they handled it professionally," Cashin said. "The amount of adapting and commandeering and borrowing of equipment that they did was really amazing."

Manchester Mayor Jay Ruais said he appreciates the work the team does.

"It will never cease to amaze me the professionalism and the exceptionalism of the men and women of this department," Ruais said. "I also appreciate your ability to tactically acquire the necessary items to engage in the work that you did."