The National Weather Service says parts of North Texas could receive up to six more inches of rain through Thursday. Already this week, Dallas Fire Rescue has responded to dozens of high water calls.
Of those, some have been water rescues where a person has been trapped by high water.
"We're no stranger to the amount of rainfall we get every year," says Dallas Fire Rescue Captain Charlie Abney. "We've had an increasing number of water calls the past few years."
Last year, Dallas Fire Rescue added a second swift water rescue team and now has 16 techs.
"We pretty much prepare for these events. This is our go-time, really," Abney says. "We've watched the forecast for the last week or so. We knew this was going to be a busy week, so we make sure we have the staffing, we make sure all of our equipment is ready to go and in order."
Abney says that prepared the two teams for a spike in water rescue calls. During times there is less demand, the teams perform other duties for the fire department, responding to medical calls and car crashes.
"Since we're the only two teams who have the swift water boats and swift water techs, we will only respond to those calls and no longer respond to the other medical calls because all the other fire stations in the city can respond to those," he says. "We really just pivot. Our swift water teams only respond to water rescue calls during the highest call volume of the weather event."
The two teams are stationed in areas with higher levels of calls along the Trinity: Pleasant Grove in Southeast Dallas and Califonia Crossing near the Loop 12-I-35E interchange in Northwest Dallas.
In addition to swift water teams, Abney says Dallas Fire Rescue has been responding to high water calls where no one is thought to be in immediate danger. He says dispatch may not send a swift water team immediately, but they may add the team if they see the location is near a creek.
"Maybe they're getting pushed off the road into an area where it's going to be more dangerous. They'll immediately dispatch our swift water team because those high water calls can quickly turn into a swift water call if they start getting moved the wrong direction in the water," Abney says.
With additional rain forecast, Abney says Dallas Fire Rescue expects a high volume of calls to continue for both water rescues and high water.
"As this weather comes in and starts saturating the ground, it's going to create more and more run-off and more flash flooding," he says. "As the week goes on, it's going to get even worse."
Prior to the second station beginning work last year, Abney says Dallas Fire Rescue would stand up a second swift water team if necessary during periods of heavy rain.
Dallas Fire Rescue also has six boat stations for use when someone has any type of emergency on a lake.
