Daring Rescue of Canadian Couple Stranded in Flooded River

On Saturday afternoon, a Canadian couple was enjoying a day swimming at the popular Rio On Pools in Mountain Pine Ridge when the river started to rise suddenly. They found themselves stranded on a rock in the middle of the turbulent body of water. They were stranded for almost five hours, well into the night, until they were finally brought back to dry land by a multi-agency team. Among the team of responders were members of the Belize Institute of Search and Rescue Training (BISART), the Spanish Lookout Fire Rescue E.M.S., the Belize Defense Force, residents of San Antonio Village and the National Fire Service. According to Wendy Garcia, the Director of BISART, this was the most technical operation they have ever undertaken. It lasted several hours with little to no margin for errors.

 

Wendy Garcia, Director, BISART

“On Saturday I received a call from a colleague of mine, a first one from a guy in Monkey Bay and the second one from the Spanish Lookout Rescue Community. So, I got the call about two persons that were stranded at the Rio Hon Pools in the Mountain Pine Ridge area. So, we responded to that incident later on that evening. This rescue was a very technical one as you have seen on videos and pictures the water levels were up and the currants were strong. These were the factors that had to be taken into consideration, no room for errors. However, when we go their we combined with the guys on the ground, the Spanish Lookout E.M.S., also the B.D.F. and the Forestry guys on the ground. In order to pull of this rescue several things had to be done. We had to go to the drawing board and go with some of the ropes and necessary rigs to maneuver down the rapids where the patients were. So, what we did, we set up a line across the river and we used that rope to access them down stream. This is why we train, we train a lot, every day, every week, every time we run different programs for different agencies in the country and the community. At the end of the day once you train and got the skills. This was one of the most technical rescues we have ever done so far because of the challenges we had. For this the main thing is not to get in these positions. You want to update yourself on the weather condition, know what is going on the river, where you are going to swim. Information, prevention is better than getting yourself in this situation. Follow the weather, see what it is doing, where you are going and if it is prone to flashfloods.”