ABC's Hearts of Heroes Shows How First Responders Train for Floods
The weekly series about first responders featured flash flood rescues in its new Season 8 episode, "Caught in the Current," and went inside a Fathom tank to show how rescuers train for moving water.
Video: Hearts of Heroes, Season 8 full episode "Caught in the Current" (Hearst Media Production Group), via YouTube.
Hearts of Heroes, the Emmy-nominated series about first responders from Hearst Media Production Group, returned this season with host Brooke Shields. Its new episode, "Caught in the Current," now streaming in full on YouTube, follows two flash flood rescues: officers racing to save a mother pinned beside her submerged car, and responders reaching a family, including a five-month-old baby, trapped in a car drifting in floodwater.
Then the episode goes behind the scenes, taking viewers inside what it calls "one of the most elite water rescue training facilities," home to a Fathom water simulation tank. The training segment stresses the basics that decide real rescues: knowing your equipment and knowing what your team can do, for the sake of both the rescuers and the people they're trying to save.
A companion clip, "How Do First Responders Train Underwater?", is also on YouTube.
Why Car-in-Water Training Matters
Both rescues in the episode involve vehicles, which matches the national pattern. According to the National Weather Service and the CDC, over half of flood-related drownings happen when a vehicle is driven into hazardous floodwater.
Reaching a submerged or drifting car in fast current is one of the hardest rescues there is, and one of the hardest to practice safely in a river. In a Fathom tank, instructors can submerge a vehicle, set the current, add rain and darkness, and run the scenario again and again until the team gets it right, with a quick shut-off if something goes wrong.
What's Your Community's Plan?
Floods are the most common and most costly natural disaster in the United States, yet many rescue teams still have no place to train for moving water year-round. Some communities are changing that. In Louisiana, Rep. Julia Letlow secured $3.5 million in Community Project Funding for an indoor flood rescue training facility built around a Fathom tank.
If you'd like your community to have a plan before the next flood, find out how to ask your representative.