antonio in a large part of the state of
texas are located in what's known as
flash flood alley when it rains hard it
floods fast often with deadly
consequences while many communities have
first responders who had trained to
rescue people stuck in raging
floodwaters many law enforcement
agencies aren't prepared to help others
or even themselves the Texas Department
of Public Safety is changing all that
launching a training course just for
troopers our kim Gerber was the first
journalist in the state invited to see
the class being taught and to take it
part in it now joins us live talk a
little bit about one of your stories you
have coming up tonight first off we saw
a little bit of video and you look
really wet and kind of cold
it was definitely wet it was definitely
cold and I'm honestly happy to be here a
little terrifying it's great video that
we did it let's talk about the training
first of all why are they offering this
training right so a few years ago and
over the course of several years we've
seen some law enforcement officers get
swept away in their vehicles while
responding to floods it's happened up in
Travis County in Austin a couple years
ago DPS saw that it wasn't one of their
depth of troopers that happened to but
they saw this happen and they wanted to
provide some training for their troopers
if they ended up in that situation so
this course that they're now have is
basically a self rescue course for DPS
troopers who might end up in a
fast-moving water situation in a flood
if they're out there responding they
might be putting up barricades they get
there next thing you know it comes up
quick doesn't happen goers as a result
of that training go over some of the
things that they're they're actually
taught in this class so basically they
learn how to get out of their vehicles
if they end up in the water they have a
simulator that they submerge they learn
how to get out of that they also have
vests and helmets and ropes that you see
there that they get as part of their new
equipment when they leave this course
that'll go with them in their cars they
want them to put it in there during a
flood situation they don't want to keep
it in there all the time so they learn
those kind of basic things to survive
and save themselves and get out of
danger they also learn how to read the
water because they need to be able to
relay that information to rescuers who
might be responding to try to help them
out and we have some information here a
quick sound bite from one of the
trainers in this course if I turn the
corner and all of a sudden it's middle
of the night in this dark and I ran into
the river what's it going to feel like
to sit in my car what's it gonna feel
like to now be this thing that
protecting me driving down the roadway
it's flooding and it's starting to fill
up with water and has me in a bad
environment I want to teach some simple
skillsets how to get out of it
so you notice there they're wearing
their full uniforms when they get there
they don't have a bulletproof vest on of
course but they're wearing a uniform
because that's what they're most likely
gonna end up in the water if they end up
they're not going to be in a wet right
but this is not a swift water rescue
course they have a whole 40 hour course
that is to train officers to do that
this is basically self rescue but then
they give them the rope so if they're on
the shore and somebody's in trouble they
can throw that to them so they do train
them some rescue as well as you see me
going through that now speaking of this
yes this is your story tonight to talk
about this training but tomorrow on this
show we get to see you experience yes
tonight is not about me tonight is about
the training but tomorrow you'll see me
going through it and we have a clip of
me going down the water here
there you go lead with your feet
lead with your feet
can I just give you a hug my wife gave
me a big hug they didn't tell her
exactly what I was doing but when I got
back I showed her some of the clips and
she was like don't do that again
you know this is the comb-out River this
is the San Marcos River in Rio Vista Mar
there's actually like a set of three
Falls there okay and we got there last
Friday and before it rained and we're
going to go through this and it kind of
mimics floodwaters going down but you
could go on the Friday when it was
really they were kind of anticipating
that we were in the water then it
started lightning and thunder so they
pulled us out but after it rained the
river had come up a good five inches so
it was really moving there was debris in
there well it was intense
I kept hearing him say lead with your
leg leave is your lead so that's
something I'm always going to remember
did you learn a lot I did and it's also
about teaching them how to position
their bodies so that if that water is
rushing how to push it over to an eddy
where the water is moving a little bit
slower so you can find exit points if
you get in that water and this
information is also on DPS is website
that we're going to share that you can
kind of learn some tips as well it seems
to me to be so important because you're
first responders are they're the ones
that go into the whatever incident is
going on the fire the the crashed or
whatever there and they man this is
important to be able to note it because
they can get themselves into some
situations and this really paid off
they've been doing this for a few years
now there's about 3,000 troopers
throughout the state they've trained
about 800 so far but it's really paid
off for hurricane Harvey because a lot
of these guys have this training and
they were able to do it safely and they
saved a lot of people tonight at 10:00
and then tomorrow at 9:00 we get to see
more of that which was frightening to
watch it I'm just glad you're okay I'm
glad I'm okay she's dry now yes my wife
said I'm getting too old for this stuff
that's great stuff okay thanks for
having me guys this is it what it's like
to go down that road it's not