A Frustrating Save

A couple of years ago, during the flooding that did a bang up job of wiping out numerous Sabino Canyon trails, one of the guys I was working with was staying late after the midnight shift. He, like many of us, was assigned to park his car along a roadway in front of a wash to keep cars from going in it until the overworked highway department could come and put up barriers.

While he was parked on the road, with overhead lights flashing and his car making it inaccessible to vehicles, a woman went jogging by. He later told me that he thought she had wanted to just go look at the running water, as many others had done. Instead, she ran into the swiftly flowing stream, got swept off her feet and was being swept along. My co-worker had to go wading in and pluck her out before she drowned.

In Galveston area, which is a totally cool little town that you should check out sometime if you ever get a chance, there were thousands of people who were asked to evacuate that stayed where they were. During the storm, the 911 system was swamped with calls of distress from these people. Now, emergency workers are working hard to try to get to the places where people may be in danger from the storm.

I guess that is a good percentage of the reason that we have rescue workers. To help people undo their bad decisions. Not in every case, but enough that it can get a little frustrating.