Tulare County Dive/Swiftwater Unit Save Lives, Grounded in Training

By Aaron Collins

High in the Sierras, spring 2009 arrives well above the Kaweah River canyon. A tiny snowflake or ice crystal melts, joins trickling rivulets that rapidly form millions and millions of gallons of water—thousands of cubic feet per second that begin the mad rush into the Kaweah River below, one of the shortest such plunges in the United States. From its headwaters at 12,000 feet, the Kaweah River can push toward Class V whitewater before it drains into placid Lake Kaweah at an elevation around 800 feet.

Along the river’s path, six pack-wielding young males with more machismo than swimming ability or good sense will soon be leaping—or maybe just stumbling, drunkenly—into that deluge, many unaware or unconcerned about the considerable dangers.

But they aren’t the only river users who find themselves swept into the enormously powerful currents of the Kaweah each year. Toddlers wander away from camp sites; motorists careen off bridges; hikers fail to negotiate slick crossings, slip, then find themselves suddenly stuck, head above water, but with an ankle caught in river rocks, immobilized—and therefore at risk of hypothermia. Even the shallow water’s temperature peaks only in the mid-60s by August. Memorial Day weekend temperatures are well below that, frigid enough to pose a threat to someone who is trapped, even though mostly above water.

Thankfully when such mishaps occur, the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department has within a well-trained Dive/Swiftwater Unit with members from throughout the agency, ready to rush to any waterway in the county at a moment’s notice, wherever they are needed for rescue or recovery.

“Because of the issues of cold water hypothermia, the amount of time a victim is stuck in the water is directly related to their survivability,” says Sergeant Jim Franks, who heads up the unit. “By this, I refer to those victims who may be clinging to a rock outcropping or tree branch. They are in water with a temperature that is probably in the high 30s to low 40s. So, depending on the force of the water flowing around them and the amount of their body in the water they may only be able to hold on for a short time. It’s critical that rescue swimmers get to the victim quickly, get them into a rescue vest and begin the recovery operation.”

Each year brings a spate of fatalities, particularly on holiday weekends, particularly within the rapids of the Kern River’s unyielding straightaway, particularly on the first hot weekend that finds inexperienced flatlanders heading for the cool hills. The good news, Franks says, is that rescue missions occur more frequent than recovery missions.

“The type of year we have is directly related to what Mother Nature throws at us,” says Franks. “The worst-case scenario is when we have a heavy snow pack and an unusually hot spring. It occasionally happens that in our valley we have temperatures in the high 80s to 90s in the spring. People flock to the outdoors to enjoy the natural beauty of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. As the day heats up people start to get hot and the rushing water looks very inviting.”

Day-trippers seem to forget that the water was ice just a short time before, says Franks. Water temperatures are in the 30s to 40s, so if a person jumps into that water, they immediately have a 50- to 60-degree temperature change to their body. In such conditions, there is a gasp response and body functions generally freeze up for several seconds.

In a fast-flowing mountain river you are immediately swept downstream. You probably have no floatation device, and, since white water is partially air bubbles, you have less natural buoyancy than in normal water. That belies, at least in part, the myth some people believe that if they are good swimmers, somehow they are indestructible and can best the river’s flow.

“If you are lucky you manage to struggle to the side of the river or grab onto some object and hold until help arrives,” he says. “If unlucky, you may strike your head as you are swept downstream and become unconscious or it may take too long for help to arrive as you hang on to an object.” In these cases “the scenario ends badly.”

He knows the patterns well. One such pattern is the dare. One young male taunts his buddy into swimming to the other side to prove his manhood, a feat that makes the local news not due to impressiveness, but for the fatality. Franks, a 21-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Department and diver for more than 35 years, has seen things that stick with him, vivid and still haunting.

He remembers the experienced hiker who was repelling along a small waterfall along the Kern River where it dropped about 10 feet and into the turbulent water below. She slipped between two boulders and was driven down by the force of the water coming down on top of her, but was immediately aided by hiking companions who grabbed her by her rope but were unable to dislodge her from the rocks. Even with water relentlessly bearing down upon her, she managed to hang on for several minutes—an eternity in such grim situations—exuding an amazing will to survive.

But, the river yields only to gravity, to geology, to extreme geometry, and to the laws of fluid dynamics—not to human will, no matter how iron a grip that will may seem, at least for a few precious minutes. Rivers span epochs; humans, mere seasons. The hiker died just out of the grasp of her loved ones who were unable to dislodge her after she lost consciousness and could no longer cling to life. No loss is a good loss, but a guy like Franks will admit, some stick to you more than others.

Anguishing as it was for the hikers to fail to rescue their friend, even the pros could not retrieve the body for another four weeks while high river flows thwarted recovery. Maybe that’s why this incident lingers in Franks’ memory. “It’s not an easy exercise to recover, control, and remove a deceased person from fast moving water,” he says. It usually involves some type of technical rope system. In the etiquette that forms within each professional culture, not getting the body is disheartening enough. But he says, “It is considered bad form to lose somebody’s loved one downriver after you have gotten hold of them.” At least that indignity was not a factor in this difficult-to-retrieve case.

As the head of a Dive/Swiftwater rescue unit, Sgt. Franks must find some relief from such an intense line of work. Franks, an L.A. native now living in the Visalia area, takes the proverbial busman’s holiday—like the bus driver who takes a bus somewhere for vacation. Franks likes to travel around the world to scuba dive, or spend time with family, hunting and canyoneering.

As you might guess from his activities in the great outdoors, Franks has, what is for him, a dream job. “I started when I was growing up in Southern California. I took several advanced dive and rescue classes. I enjoyed being a volunteer rescue diver. When I applied to the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department they were very interested in my diving qualifications,” he says. “As you can tell from my main off-duty activity I love diving and being on the water. When you have a job that pays you to do what you love, it doesn’t get any better than that.”

He is also passing on his years of knowledge to his unit, offering training and supervision to the fifteen-member group that is drawn from deputies from around the Sheriff’s Department to what is an auxiliary assignment. Team members come from the Custody, Patrol, Detectives and Courts divisions. Members are required to be certified scuba divers and must have strong swimming skills. Tryouts for the unit are held annually, or when openings occur on the team. Applicants are required to perform basic scuba skills in three different types of dives: in still clear water, in limited or zero visibility, and in a slow-moving canal. These dives assess an applicant’s ability beyond basic scuba. Any difficulty encountered by the applicant during any of these test dives takes them out of consideration for the year. They are advised to take a refresher or an advanced scuba course, then try out the following year if they’re still interested.

Even once accepted, members are trained in advanced diving techniques and swiftwater rescue techniques. Not every diver is swiftwater rescue certified; some are exceptional divers but have no desire to be in or around a white water river. But they must be if they wish to serve on the Dive/Swiftwater Unit with the Tulare County Sheriff’s Department.

Though Sgt. Franks is the diving trainer, he has also done more than a few stints in training for a variety of law enforcement-related subjects including classes at the Basic Police Academy at COS. Additional work-related courses include Advanced Dive Rescue, Swiftwater Rescue Tech I & II, FTO, Basic and Advanced SWAT, SWAT Team Leader, Basic Homicide Investigations, Officer-involved Shooting, Death Investigations, Basic Narcotics Investigations, Clan Lab Investigations and most of the other basic classes associated with an officer of his time in the profession. So the guy in the diver’s suit is well rounded in the ways of law enforcement, in addition to his niche in the water.

But the training cannot prevent every bad outcome. Franks and the unit can’t be everywhere at all times. Sometimes a bystander tries to help and himself becomes a victim. “I remember a young hero who jumped into the Kaweah River in the Ash Mountain area. He was attempting to rescue a friend who had jumped into the river at a popular swimming hole. As his friend began to struggle against the current, this young man jumped hoping to rescue his friend,” Franks said. The friend managed to pull himself out down river, but the rescuer did not make it. “I later recovered this young man from under a waterfall where he had been pinned to the bottom. I had to be pulled out from that location by rope because I could not swim against the current that was holding us under the falls.”

Franks is more upbeat than one would expect, given some of the most tragic circumstances that go with his role. “I enjoy the work, I find working around the rivers to be very challenging and exciting. As most of our swiftwater work involves rescues as opposed to diving for body recoveries, it is also very rewarding to get instant feedback from victims and their families.”

And that potential outcome helps make all the training, preparedness, difficulties—even the potential heartbreak—worth it for him, in the end. If you ever get a chance to meet him, and let’s hope you don’t, you’ll be glad a devoted guy like Franks became immersed in his job.

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