BY ROBERT DUMMETT
The Atlanta area had been deluged with rain for more than two weeks, and Hurricane Dennis, now a tropical depression and moving northward into Tennessee and Kentucky, was bringing more with it. The rainfall for June broke an all-time Georgia record; 13 inches were recorded at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. In Douglas and Fulton counties, the Chattahoochee River was 20 feet above flood stage and was threatening to rise further. The raging water was uprooting trees from its banks and carrying them downriver in its 28-knot current.
At the Highway 166 Bridge, just outside Douglasville, the water had risen to within four feet of the concrete beams that supported the roadway. At that height, there was little room for the debris being carried down the river to clear the bridge and the fiber-optic telecommunication cables that paralleled it.
Just to the south of the bridge, ComCast Cable fiber-optic telecommunication cables stretched the span of the river. Under normal conditions, the cables were safely out of harm’s way, but these were not normal conditions. Whole trees were being uprooted and washed downriver by the Chattahoochee’s torrent waters. Those trees able to pass under the bridge were becoming snagged in the cables and pulling them from the anchors on the poles that held them. If the cables were torn loose, an entire quad-county area would be without telephone service, including 9-1-1.
Also, the straining fiber-optic cables were pulling the utility poles that supported them and the high-voltage power lines they shared in toward the river. If those utility poles came down, not only would the area be without telephone communication, it would also be without power. The situation was becoming critical.
Aware of the deteriorating situation, ComCast Cable, owner of the cables, dispatched repair crews to the Highway 166 Bridge to remedy the problem.
Comtrec Services of Atlanta, under contract by ComCast for the maintenance of ComCast’s fiber-optic lines in the Metro-Atlanta area, had sent several crews to the bridge to make repairs. Chris Gaylor, Contrec’s project manager, determined that the trees had to be cut free of the cables before they pulled the cables, the power lines, and the poles that supported them into the turbulent river.
 (1) Area map of the Chattahoochee River. Discovery point of victims. [Photos 1, 2 by Chad Arnold, Douglas County (GA) Fire Department.] |
At approximately 1930 hours on July 11, 2005, Richard Dunkin, 24, of Creola, Alabama, and Jeremy Rice, 28, of New Virginia, Iowa, Comtrec independent contractors, donned life jackets, grabbed a chain saw, and launched a personal watercraft (PWC) into the rushing waters of the Chattahoochee. With a gun of the engine, the two were headed under the bridge and toward the entangled trees. Operating a three-passenger Honda Aqua-trac FX1200 Turbo PWC, they worked quickly and efficiently to free the trees and send them downriver.
 (2) The Chattahoochee River passing through Douglas County. |
Once the cables were free of the drifting trees, a new problem developed. The cables were now being whipped by the rushing floodwater and were again in danger of ensnaring more drifting debris.
Working in the water from their PWC, Dunkin and Rice were attempting to tie off the whipping cables to the Highway 166 Bridge when one of the cables caught the PWC, flipped it, and catapulted Rice into the churning water. He was quickly caught in the 28-knot current and carried downriver. Dunkin, who was able to stay with the PWC, uprighted it in the rushing water, started its engine, and headed off to retrieve his partner. However, the PWC soon stalled because of debris sucked into its jet intake. Dead in the water, the PWC was struck broadside by a large drifting stump, capsizing the PWC and putting Dunkin in the water. The two were now being carried away into the darkness as their coworkers watched helplessly from the bridge.
Gaylor pulled his cell phone from its holster and dialed 9-1-1.
ALARMS AND RESPONSE
It was 2218 hours when Gaylor’s call for help came into the Douglas County (GA) Emergency 9-1-1 Center. The call was immediately relayed to the Douglas County Fire Department, and an alarm was sounded: “10-37/Signal 9. Water Rescue. Possible drowning with multiple victims. Chattahoochee River at the Highway 166 Bridge. ”
Engine 6, with Lieutenant Lon Wynn in command, arrived at the Highway 166 Bridge at 2227 hours and made contact with the Comtrec crew. Learning of the situation, Wynn radioed Dispatch and requested that additional units be dispatched downriver at the Highway 92 Bridge, in an attempt to intercept Dunkin and Rice should they make it that far. He also requested that a rescue boat and a rescue unit be dispatched to his location.
At 2249 hours, Rescue 5 arrived at the Highway 166 Bridge to help Engine 5 personnel set up illumination and visually search the river from the bridge while standing by as a medical unit, if required. Using a thermal imaging camera (TIC), Engine 6 and Rescue 5 personnel scanned the waters of the Chattahoochee for any sign of Dunkin and Rice.
 (3) The airboat parked on the shoreline. (Photos 3, 4 by George Lainhart.) |
At 2254 hours, Engine 5, under the command of Lieutenant Mike Davis, arrived at the Highway 92 Bridge, 10 miles downriver. Davis immediately ordered his crew to set up the generator and illuminate the river with the engine’s floodlights. He also radioed Dispatch and requested a light truck mutual aid and Engine 4, for additional lighting equipment. Engine 4, a new apparatus, was not yet in service but was in the process of being equipped and had much greater illuminating capability than Engine 5. Unfortunately, Engine 5’s TIC had been damaged on a call the shift before and was out of service.
At 2255 hours, Division Chief David Brown was notified of the situation and put en route. On learning of the alarm, Brown instructed the alarm office to contact George Lainhart, a police officer with the City of College Park Police Department, who was at home in nearby Fairburn, and requested that he respond with his airboat to the Highway 166 Bridge.
At 2320 hours, Brown arrived at the Highway 166 Bridge and took command of the operation. At the Highway 92 Bridge, the crew of Engine 5 readied roof ladders and throw lines while law enforcement personnel arrived and began searching the river and shoreline for Dunkin and Rice from the bridge.
The banks of the Chattahoochee through Douglas and Fulton Counties were steep and heavily wooded and did not permit access. That fact and the fact that the wooded area on either side was flooded back 300 to 500 yards made it impossible to attempt to search the river from its banks.
At 2327 hours, Fire Chief Scott Spenser arrived at the Highway 166 Bridge; Brown retained command. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office had requested a mutual-aid helicopter from the Atlanta Police Department. By the time Spenser arrived, the helicopter was in the air illuminating the river below with its high-intensity floodlight and performing an aerial search. The Sheriff’s Office had also requested a rescue boat from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
It was now nearly 90 minutes into the incident, and there was no trace of Dunkin and Rice.
RESCUE OPERATION
Lainhart arrived at the Highway 166 Bridge at 2333 hours with his 14-foot aluminum hull airboat, which has a three-foot solid rake on its bow and one-quarter-inch polymer covering on the bottom and 10 inches up each side. The boat, powered by a 355 Corvette ZZ4, 425-hp engine, had a belt-reduction drive unit and a two-blade PowerShift composite propeller. In addition, the boat was equipped with a full illumination package for search and rescue operations.
When Lainhart arrived, the bridge was lined on both sides with firefighters, EMS personnel, and law enforcement officers. The mutual-aid helicopter was performing an aerial search. Brown and Spenser had established a command post at the bridge and were directing operations.
 (4) The airboat negotiating the waterway. |
After meeting with Spenser and getting briefed on the situation, Lainhart attempted to launch his airboat on the north side of the Highway 166 Bridge, which provided the only water access. However, he quickly realized that there was insufficient clearance under the bridge for the airboat. Assessing the situation and once again conferring with Spenser, Lainhart went farther downriver to the first available access point and worked a search back upriver to the Highway 166 Bridge. It would be nearly a 10-mile drive down Highway 70, which paralleled the Chattahoochee River to the bridge where Highway 92 crossed the river.
When Lainhart arrived downriver at the Highway 92 Bridge, he found a scene similar to that which he had just left. Firefighters and law enforcement personnel were stretched across the length of the bridge on both sides scouring the raging water and wooded shoreline with searchlights trying to gain a glimpse of the two missing men. The only hope that the two men would be found alive hinged on the fact that they were wearing their personal flotation devices (PFDs) when they entered the water.
At the Highway 92 Bridge, Lainhart met with Assistant Chief Tom Brown, who was coordinating the search effort at that end. Brown briefed Lainhart on the situation and put him in contact with Chad Cox, Ranger 1st Class, Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Cox, along with the Douglas County Fire Department, had his outboard patrol boat on the scene, but it could not be used because of the amount of debris in the water. The prevailing opinion was that if a large piece of debris were to contact the propeller of one of the outboards and disable it, the would-be rescuers would themselves be in need of rescuing. The risk to emergency personnel was too high.
Lainhart was undaunted by the river conditions. He asked Cox to accompany him on his airboat to conduct a search upriver. As emergency personnel watched in dismay, Lainhart unloaded his airboat on the pavement in the middle of Highway 92. Donning his PFD and all safety equipment, he turned the airboat’s ignition key and started the engine. Once his passenger was aboard and all was clear, Lainhart accelerated the engine and easily slid across the pavement and through the flooded parking lot of a rock and gravel mill to the river’s edge.
Heading upriver against a 28-knot current, with all search lights illuminated, Lainhart maneuvered to avoid floating debris that included uprooted whole trees, refrigerators, furniture, lumber, branches, fence posts, LP gas cylinders, televisions, and other large objects while his partner scanned the water and shoreline for any sign of the two missing men. After traveling nearly six miles upriver from the Highway 92 Bridge, Cox spotted something in a large oak tree that was being carried downriver by the current. He alerted Lainhart. As Lainhart maneuvered the airboat closer, he and Cox noticed two men perched in the limbs of the tree waving frantically while desperately clinging to the drifting tree’s branches.
It was 0030 hours. Dunkin and Rice had survived a four-mile trip down the twisting and turning rain-swollen Chattahoochee. Had it not been for the PFDs they were still wearing, Lainhart’s mission would have been body recovery instead of rescue. The PFDs Dunkin and Rice were wearing not only provided them with flotation but also doubled as body armor, protecting them against debris in the water. Without their PFDs, the two likely would have been dragged beneath the water and drowned by the fast-moving debris that repeatedly contacted them as the current carried them downriver. Now, it was up to Lainhart to get the two onboard his rescue boat and everyone to the Highway 92 Bridge safely.
Lainhart backed off the throttle, evaluated the situation, and weighed his options. No matter how this was going to be done, it was not going to be easy. He had to contend with unstable conditions, fast-moving current, floating and submerged debris, darkness, and two very scared and anxious victims. The last thing Lainhart wanted was to get caught cross-current, wedged against the drifting oak tree, or struck by a half-submerged stump traveling downriver at 12 to 15 miles per hour. The potential for disaster was great. One miscalculation could put him and his partner in the water, capsize his boat, and send it downriver with the other flood debris.
Quickly formulating a plan, Lainhart circled the tree, told Cox the plan, and explained to Cox his role. Approaching the tree from downstream, Lainhart edged the boat’s bow into the tree’s branches just under Dunkin and Rice. As soon as the airboat was in position, Dunkin and Rice, one at a time, jumped into the boat. As each one’s feet hit the boat’s deck, Cox grabbed the men and ushered them into the front passenger seat. When all passengers were aboard and secured, Lainhart throttled up the engine and power-turned out of the drifting tree, extricating the boat and his crew.
Once out in the open water of the river, Cox radioed the command post that the missing men had been located, were safely aboard the rescue boat, and were en route to the Highway 92 Bridge.
As Lainhart motored his vessel toward the bridge, about 100 yards upriver, he and his passengers could hear cheers of rescuers and civilian onlookers over the roar of the airboat’s engine. Lainhart gently maneuvered the airboat through the flooded rock and gravel mill to dry ground, where the EMS crew was waiting. After the airboat came to a halt and the engine was shut down, Dunkin and Rice were greeted by family members before paramedics hurried them away for medical evaluation.
At 0047 hours, the incident was secured; the last unit, Engine 5, cleared the scene at 0106 hours.
Dunkin and Rice survived the incident without physical injury; however, both are experiencing serious mental effects. Rice left his job in Georgia and has returned to his home in Iowa. Dunkin continues to work but awakes at night in a cold sweat from nightmares of his trip down the Chattahoochee and the fear he had of being lost in the river’s muddy water, never to see his family again.
LESSONS LEARNED
Drowning is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, ahead of fire, burns, and smoke inhalation. It is widely recognized that a fire department that has a large body of water within its response area should have a well-structured and organized method of responding to water-related emergencies.
Unfortunately, in many communities, water rescue response is not a mandated service and is, therefore, nonexistent or underfunded. In that regard, many fire departments are ill-equipped and lack proper training in responding to water-related emergencies. That lack of training and equipment puts potential drowning victims and rescuers at risk. Having a well-trained and well-equipped water rescue team in communities where large bodies of water are present is as important as being fully prepared to respond to fires or motor vehicle accidents.
In the Chattahoochee River incident, the incident command system worked without fault. Communications were excellent, and the available personnel and equipment were used to maximum potential. Multiple responding agencies worked in cooperation, maximizing their efforts and their available resources. On the night of July 11, a well-organized response system resulted in the successful and timely rescue of two victims from the flood-swollen Chattahoochee River, with no injury to responding personnel or damage to equipment. ■
■ ROBERT DUMMETT is a 26-year fire service veteran, with 19 years as a firefighter/paramedic for Miami-Dade (FL) Fire Rescue. He is coordinator of the Miami-Dade Marine Services Bureau Airboat Rescue Program. Following the 1996 Valu-Jet crash in the Florida Everglades, he was given the responsibility of developing an airboat rescue and response program for the department. Dummett has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a graduate certificate in EMS management from Florida International University in Miami. He is a member of the department’s Air-Deployable SCBA Dive Rescue Team and has certifications as a marine shipboard firefighter, a fire service instructor, an ACLS instructor, and a safe boating instructor.
