I've been busy this past week. I volunteer with my county's search and rescue organization (for Adams County), primarily due to my 4Runner. So in the past I've primarily been called to help during major snow events. This was the first time I've helped due to flooding. Most other members of this SAR are more experienced with SAR than I am, but I've been learning a lot each day.

The Boulder Office of Emergency Management called Adams County to help with SAR starting last Thursday. I was one of many people in many organizations from surrounding states that responded to the flooding. My 4Runner served me well, as I had to drive thru a lot of water that was up to about 16 inches deep on the first day. But pretty quickly what they needed most was people who could hike, not drive. So the next couple of days I was parking the 4Runner and hiking into canyons west of Boulder where homes had become isolated (no utilities, no cell service, no landlines, and roads in all directions were completely destroyed). We were assigned a section of a canyon where we checked all the homes for people who had not evacuated yet. When we found people, we convinced them to evacuate with us. We got all the people from that area and hiked with them to a designated helicopter landing zone. Then a Blackhawk helicopter flew all of us out to Boulder's airport. Then we got a ride back to our vehicles at the top of the canyon to drive out of there.

So I have a case of perma-grin from flying in a Blackhawk. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> That was sooooo AWESOME. We had that thing packed full - 9 people plus backpacks plus the crew of 4 plus 2 cats in carriers plus 2 dogs in carriers. We packed 2 Blackhawks full like that with similar numbers of people/pets on each flight.

I've seen all kinds of hazards that I never thought I'd see -- such as flash floods, downed power lines, a loose propane tank, an oxygen bottle floating past us, real quicksand (quickmud?), land slides, many fallen trees across the road, and asphalt roads where the river tunneled under the whole road but the asphalt layer somehow hasn't collapsed yet.

The initial SAR effort in this area is mostly completed now. My mind is now buzzing with everything that happened.

Glad to see you were not adversely impacted.

Volunteering with local emergency actions is an interesting opportunity to help people and learn more about people and natural disasters.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Jeff...

You're welcome.

I hope more people with recreational 4x4's look into volunteering with their county/city/local office of emergency management or search and rescue organization. It's been wonderful for me and I've been able to receive a variety of training that is also useful in the 4x4 world, such as basic 1st aid and training related to radios and various communications.

During local emergencies, communications is always a major issue. The amateur radio frequencies were designated in part for communications during emergencies.

Obtaining you amateur radio license and participating with other local amateur radio enthusiasts is a great way to expand the sport of 4-wheeling.

In addition, amateur radio offers communications that is superior to CB radios commonly used.