JACKSON, Ky. — It was a scenario Charles Noble had never imagined: floodwater rising so high that the assistant fire chief would lose his home, and so fast he’d be separated from his family.
“My family personally got rescued by helicopter, airlifted out, and then the Winchester swift water rescue [team] rescued my kids and my wife,” he recalled last week.
In the hours that followed, Noble and his crew at the Jackson Fire Department wouldn’t sleep, working to save their neighbors with the help of departments from around the region.
“I’m glad that they showed up to help us because… everybody was flooded in to where we couldn’t get to our equipment anyway and we didn’t have the equipment to really do what we needed to do,” he said.
One year later, the department has a new trailer, generator and two new boats, replacing one damaged in the flood.
“This is a really vital piece of equipment to deploy because you can do some really tight maneuvers with this boat,” he said, referring to a new inflatable boat stored in a garage at the department. “It’s in the toolbox. If you never use it, it’s fine, but if you need to use it, you got it.”
The department has also purchased several pieces of new equipment, including helmets and dry suits. Noble said they’d like to have most of the crew trained on swift water rescue.
The biggest lesson from the last year, he said, is you can never be too prepared.
“We’re here waiting and anything that we could do to help, we’ll do everything in our power to get to you and help you,” he said. “We’re trying to better our department as best as we can to suit the environments that’s still yet to come.”