Swift water rescue training
Flood waters are just as unpredictable as the sea but present a very different set of dangers.
Our flood rescue volunteers undergo extensive and regular swift water rescue training to ensure their safety in this unfamiliar, diverse and high-risk environment.
First, it's a pre-requisite that all RNLI Flood Rescue Team members are competent RNLI lifeboat crew or operational staff.
Through their training they become Flood Water Rescue Technicians and/or Flood Water Rescue Boat Operators.
The swift water rescue training simulates the conditions they could face in flood waters and rivers and involves:
- negotiating swift and rising flood water
- operating a lifeboat in fast-flowing water
- manoeuvring the lifeboat in narrow spaces similar to the streets of a town
- dealing with submerged hazards
- performing rescues from weirs safely, using two boats
- defensive rescue swimming in white water
- wading in shallow, moving water
- throwbag rescues
- navigation
- communications
- technical rope work
- reconnaissance techniques
- mapping and survival skills.
Regular training exercises allow the team to practise these specialist skills so that they are always ready for a flooding emergency.
See the team in action in our flood rescue training video gallery.
