HONOLULU – As floodwaters rose across the Kau District during Hurricane Lala, a Hawaii National Guard high-water vehicle team was already returning from one rescue when another call came in: two emergency medical responders were stranded in their ambulance and needed help.
The Soldiers were about a mile away when they received the request for assistance.
“They had just completed an individual rescue of a gentleman and were headed back to the fire station when we received the follow-on call requesting our assistance with the stranded EMS,” said Sgt. Darrick Salinas, 1st Squadron, 299th Cavalry Regiment. “We didn't really have a lot of information on the full circumstances of their situation, just that their vehicle had stalled in high water.”
The team turned toward the stranded paramedics, and as the team approached, the conditions deteriorated. What had been roughly 2 feet of water earlier in their mission had risen to at least 5 feet by the time they reached the EMS personnel.
Floodwater spilled into the cab and bed of their high-water vehicle, while heavy rain and widespread power outages limited visibility. The Soldiers also encountered debris carried by the floodwaters, including trees, rocks, furniture, trash cans and a county pickup truck.
“The biggest challenge was just the sheer velocity and volume of water that was coming at us,” Salinas said. “We were traveling from the bottom of the hill, kind of working our way up in elevation, so all of the floodwaters were essentially converging on our location.”
At times, the Soldiers could not see the road beneath them.
“There was a huge risk of driving off the road along the entire duration of our route,” Salinas said. “The greatest risk was our vehicle being overwhelmed by water and becoming inoperable.”
When the Soldiers reached the ambulance, the two paramedics climbed into the Guard vehicle.
Salinas, who was driving, immediately shifted his focus from reaching the stranded responders to getting everyone safely out of the floodwaters.
“We knew we were their last hope of escaping the rising water, and we just had to do whatever it took to bring them into our vehicle,” Salinas said.
The original plan was to extract the paramedics and continue toward the fire station. But with water rapidly rushing toward them, the team determined that continuing forward was no longer a viable option.
Instead, the team decided to reverse out of the flooded roadway. Everyone aboard the vehicle helped guide Salinas as he backed through about a mile of floodwater toward a police station.
With severely restricted visibility, the Soldiers and paramedics called out road edges and used power lines, fences and speed-limit signs to help determine where the road was beneath them.
“For me, as the driver of the vehicle, it was simply getting everybody to where they needed to be, safely,” Salinas said. “Making sure that we mitigated that risk as best we could, and then once we were out, just trying to get everyone to safety was on my mind.”
Afterward, the paramedics returned to their mission of helping others affected by the storm. Looking back on the rescue and the escape from the flood waters, Salinas credited his team who worked alongside him in the flooded vehicle.
“My Soldiers were awesome that night,” he said. “For me, the success behind that mission was 100% on them.”