Swiftwater/Flood Water Rescue

Swiftwater rescue can be both challenging and dangerous, requiring skill, timing, and teamwork in order to be effective. In Central Arizona, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of swiftwater rescue incidents. This is in part due to the continued influx of new people who are unaware of the dangers presented by Arizona's flash floods. With the team's helicopter rescue capability, Mountain Rescue is able to fly quickly to scenes and provide helicopter-based swiftwater and flood rescues.

Our usually bone-dry desert is deceiving. The steep terrain and hard desert surface combine to turn even small storms into boulder-rolling flash floods. Of the resulting drownings, many are preventable, but too many people continue to drive around the barriers that warn you the road is flooded.