SACRAMENTO, Calif. — With major weather hitting the Sacramento this week and early next week, ABC10's Ananda Rochita spent time DART, the Drowning Accident Rescue Team, to see how the volunteer group prepares for major weather.
When DART gets a message, they need to go. The organization, which is completely funded by donations, grants, and fundraiser events, is a mutual aid 911 asset and works with fire departments in the region.
"With a major weather event like this, we're gonna have everything ready to go," said Cole Glenwright, public information officer with DART. "We're conducting additional training, and we're really making sure that, in the event any sort of water rescue call comes in- whether it's a vehicle into a river or a flooding incident-, our team will be ready to assist."
One of the ways Glenwright and the rest of the DART team stay ready is by loading up their cars with gear like safety equipment, wet suits, helmets, and water bottles.
"Our volunteers have full time day jobs generally, or are in school, retired or train continuously," Glenwright said. "We're trained at the same standards as any other professional team would be."
Inside their rig, every compartment is full of tools.
They have full dry suits, additional scuba tanks, and bags filled with 50 feet of rope. They recommend these bags so you can throw a rope out to someone stuck in the water.
"As an all volunteer agency, we can be paged out from wherever we are," Glenwright said. "If we're out at our regular day jobs or at [the] university and we get the 911 call, we go right from there."
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