Island Guardians: Inside Hatteras Ocean Rescue

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Welcome to the First Responders Podcast, the podcast about first responders
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made by first responders.
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Now for your host, Brian Miller, a retired first responder with over 25 years of experience.
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All right, you're back with the First Responders Podcast. My name is Brian. I'm your host.
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I I am down in Buxton, North Carolina, sitting across the table from Captain
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Molly Greenwood from the Hatteras Island Ocean Rescue.
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Is that the right title? Yep. So we're Hatteras Island Rescue Squad,
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and I'm just in charge of the Ocean Rescue Division.
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Awesome. Awesome. So real quick, let's talk about, is it Cape Hatteras,
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Hatteras Island, Hatteras? Hatteras Island, yeah. Okay. Let's talk about Hatteras Island.
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Because we are in the middle of summer.
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So tell me about the population. So our population goes up exponentially in the summer. Traffic.
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We don't have that many year-round residents. So we have a lot of people that
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either live here just for the summer or we have weekly rentals.
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So every week we get a new group of people and it's all of our vacation homes here are booked.
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So it just grows and grows.
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It's insane. I was with Chief Collins the other day, and we talked about the traffic.
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And one of the things that I talked to you about at the very beginning was I
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was surprised that you guys have rescue vehicles.
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Because when you think about ocean rescue, you think about Baywatch,
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the whole floaty thing, and the guys running down the beach.
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But you guys are into so much more than that.
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She has shown me so much this morning. I don't even know where to start.
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So tell me a little bit about Captain Greenwood. Give me a little bit of background information on you.
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So I moved down here in high school and I really wanted a summer job on the
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beach. And that's really where I got into it.
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I started working summers for Ocean Rescue and then I actually decided to join
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the Rescue Squad, which is, you know, volunteer organization year round.
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And I went to college at NC State. Go Pack.
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I'm a target of fans, and we can't talk anymore.
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And then I decided to come back home after I got out of college and decided
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to continue ocean rescue.
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I worked EMS, but yeah, I was still doing it after five years and just overseeing
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the program. And it's something I really enjoy.
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And not just the ocean rescue side of things, but the volunteer basis of the
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rescue squad itself, you know, vehicle extrication, searches,
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not just water. Well, that's the thing that amazes me about it.
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Volunteer. You guys, if you go up north, up where I'm from in Virginia Beach
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and Chesapeake, you guys would be making $70,000, $80,000 a year.
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And you guys do it for next to
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nothing. Yeah, I mean, I think it's the community basis we have down here.
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You know, everyone has each other's back and something bad's going down. We all want to be there.
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And it's a very small, as far as population-wise and geographically, very small place.
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Yeah. I mean, the rescue squad, we start in Avon and we cover the Hatteras Inlet.
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And it's about 30, approximately 30 miles to cover.
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But we're just so people see us and
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they're like oh it's the beach the dunes but there's actually a lot of
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wooded areas and deeply wooded areas that you know
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we have a lot of searches in and a lot of people don't
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know about these small little hidden places when you told me about the park
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service earlier i i had no idea yeah no idea i didn't think i didn't think there
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was any park down here so completely volunteer service go into some of the training
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that you guys do Because from what I understand,
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other people have told me that you guys are one of the most well-trained outfits
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in the state. Well, I mean, we appreciate that.
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So every week we try and do a water rescue training on Sundays in the summer.
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We'll do it Sunday mornings. But then, you know, in our off season when we're
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not super busy, we'll do TR classes. So we have an in-house teacher that can
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actually instruct some of our TR, like rope rescue, stuff like that.
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You say TR. technical rescue. Thank you.
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And we also will do every, it's third Thursday or after our business meetings,
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we'll conduct some like an hour training or something like that just to get everyone together.
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We have to do annual CPR training.
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Everyone has to do it. We go over SCIF, boat operations, extrication.
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We'll get some cars to cut up and mess around with out here in our parking lot.
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Oh man, that sounds like fun.
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And pretty much following along the technical rescue outline.
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So we'll do a lot of training with that in the wintertime.
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Summer, most of our focus is
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water rescue since 90% of our call volume is water rescue in the summer.
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So on an average, and I hate to use the word average when I talk about the stuff
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that we do because For you and I, it's average, but there's nine to five folks.
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On an average day, average week, how many water rescues do y'all do?
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Probably on an average day.
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This is going to include, of course, paged and unpaged because we are patrolling.
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I'd say we probably do on a pretty...
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I'd say without, like, big surf or forecast, it's probably, like, three a day. Oh, wow.
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But now when we get heavy surf or the rip currents are predicted to be high, we could do probably 15.
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Yeah, because those gnarly surfer dudes don't have enough sense.
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So, I mean, we are lucky, too. We are surrounded by a community that everyone,
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even the surfers, are looking out for everyone on the beach.
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So we've had a lot of, like, undocumented rescues, right? Those guys are seeing
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it happen and they just bring them in. and there's no talk about it.
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Wow. So let's go back to the technical part of this because you're talking rope
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rescue. What do you do rope rescue?
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Where would you have rope rescue here? We haven't had many, probably most likely
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like towers or like radio towers or, you know, water towers.
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But in honesty, like that's not my big forte.
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We have people in here though that that's a big thing for them.
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But we haven't had to use it much i'm sure there's
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been some vehicle extrication yeah stuff like
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that yeah and the where do you guys get trained so we do a lot of in-house training
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but we'll send people out to take like you know paratech university or stuff
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like that we'll of course you know spend the funds to send someone off to school
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but a lot of like medical training wise,
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you know, we work with Dare County EMS and a lot of people who also volunteer
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here work for Dare County or work for fire departments that are paid around here.
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So everyone kind of gets training here, there. And then we also offer a lot
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of training here in-house.
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And does, I know that the EMS training is done through the community college. Yep, yep.
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What about the technical rescue, the rope stuff, the building stuff?
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Is that done through the colleges too? Or do you go to different departments?
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Yeah, so I believe it's through the college, but we do have a member here that
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is also an instructor. Oh, okay.
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Like I said, a lot of that, not my huge forte. I got you, I got you.
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Yeah. And so obviously you guys are all lifeguard trained.
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Yeah, so we actually have our own kind of standard. So we're not like USLA or Red Cross.
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We're actually surf water rescue.
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And is that a standard that you created? Yep.
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Okay, I got you. So the rescue squad has created their own surf water rescue standard.
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And what about the different levels of medical training that you guys have?
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So we have anywhere from EMT, I'm an AMT, and then we have paramedic.
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Right now we're practicing as a BLS agency. See?
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But, yeah, we do have a wide range of knowledge.
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We have actually, we have some RNs that volunteer here.
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We have an RN that actually is one of our supervisors for water rescue.
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So we have a lot of people with a lot of different backgrounds.
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And you and I went for a ride earlier. Mm-hmm.
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And we touched on this briefly while we were riding. The beach where I live,
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you have a lifeguard stand every, I don't know, 100 yards or whatever.
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I don't go to that beach. The place is dangerous.
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Anyway, you said you guys don't have lifeguard stands, correct?
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Correct. We just, National Park Service funds down here, they have one in Frisco
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and Boxton, but that's not anything to do with us.
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So we do roaming patrols. So we're driving trucks and UTVs up and down the beach
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all day, Monday through Saturday.
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Okay. and they're, you know, doing a lot of public education.
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So if they're seeing a rip current, they're going to go talk about it with the
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group that's set up right in front of it.
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Or we fly flags off of our trucks depending on the rip current risk.
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Oh, okay. I got you. So that gives it a chance for the public to interact with us too. Wow.
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Because I like the public education aspect of it, stopping and talking to the people.
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Well, and it makes our days go by faster too. Yeah, it does. It does.
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I've never been a lifeguard, But I can imagine sitting up in a stand like that.
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I'm not a sit-still kind of guy. And, you know, from what I know of you from
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the last couple of hours, I don't think you or anybody work here.
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When I got here this morning, folks, Molly said we stepped into some chaos.
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We got here and the cell phone towers were out and they were scrambling.
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But, you know, it's organized chaos, as you say.
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Yeah. So it wasn't chaotic at all. It's an orchestra.
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So let's talk about your shift. Okay. What type of shift work do you guys do?
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So it's, for me, it's typically a 40-hour work week here.
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So we have two different shifts. One's 9.30 to 5.30 and one's 10 to 6. Okay.
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And half of our crew will come in at 9.30, half will come in at 10.
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And this is just Monday through Saturday.
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And we kind of just split from here right at 10 o'clock. and we're on the beach
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patrolling and talking to people and helping EMS if there's a med call on or
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off the beach, we respond to anything around the island or vehicle extrications.
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So it's not just ocean rescue, even though that's kind of what we're paid for
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in the summer, but our volunteers also fill in.
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Like I told you, I was shocked to roll up here and see heavy rescue vehicles
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because, like I said, I thought about Baywatch.
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I had no clue. So if I walked out there on the beach right now,
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how many of your people am I going to see out there?
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So probably if you were up in Avon, you'd see four patrolling.
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And then down Frisco Hatteras, you'd see four. We kind of split half and half
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just so we have the most beach covered.
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But yeah, they're always kind of moving back and forth.
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Avon Pier, they like to hang out at, though, because that's where a big population
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is. So you'll see them there a lot. Okay. And.
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I've noticed I want to drive in to another ocean rescue.
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Chickama. Chickama Comico. Thank you.
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Are they set up the same way? Yeah, they're roaming patrols as well. Oh, okay.
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Yep. They cover pretty much south of Oregon Inlet Bridge to where we end at
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Ramp 30 or where we begin.
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So they cover that middle spot. But it's all still Dare County,
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right? So it's kind of funny. Like they're independent.
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Yeah. No, I mean, geographically, they're still into it. Yes,
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geographically, they're in Deer County. Okay. Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, it's been an education coming down into Carolina because,
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like I told you earlier, man, y'all do things.
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I don't say, I'm not going to say backwards. It's the exact opposite of Virginia
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because we supply, we're required to supply fire.
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And then EMS came along later, where you guys are required to supply EMS,
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and the fire is either volunteer or brought into the county, which is really cool.
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So heavy rescue, what about, and somebody mentioned this the other day,
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you get one of these tours and they dig a big hole in the sand.
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How often does that happen? Quite a bit, actually.
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We run into it on the beach. And, of course, that's part of our public education.
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You know, don't dig holes to knee-deep length on the smallest person in your
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group. So it needs to be below knee length.
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And a lot of people argue about it. But, you know, I'm pretty honest with people.
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I'm like, hey, we've had someone die two years ago. Oh, really?
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Oh, yeah. We had one collapse on someone, unfortunately. Oh, man. Yeah.
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I mean, and it happens all over the place. You know, it's not just here, but, you know, it's.
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I just, that's never been, I'm going to dig a big hole and climb in it.
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You know, and sometimes it's unfortunate and it's kids just playing around.
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And, you know, we see it at home.
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These folks come to the beach because they don't grow up on the beach like you
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and I did. Yeah. And they don't know what can happen.
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Just like with the rip currents, you know. Yeah. They don't know.
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I've actually never seen one because I'm not a big beach guy.
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I was as a kid, but we were usually fishing or crabbing or something like that. Yeah.
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But if you don't know what to look for, that's what I really like that you guys do is the education.
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Mm-hmm yeah i wouldn't know ripcarn if it tapped
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me on the show i don't expect people to you know it's it's kind
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of one of those rare things like if you're not growing up around the beach
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you're not going to be able to point one out especially in our
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conditions a lot of times it you really have
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to know what you're looking for so it's just public education
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is a huge thing for us because we can go out we can point it to the family that's
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set up right in front of them you can like look do you feel it when you're getting
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in like and we can kind of talk them through it now do Do you have a public
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outreach other than walking up and down the beach and talking to the crowds?
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So our Facebook page, we post every morning the conditions.
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But other than that, we'll do CPR classes, rip current classes upon request. I got to say, God.
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Because I don't know.
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A lot of the people from, a lot of tourists come down. This is a big fishing
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destination, right? Yeah.
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You get up to Nags Head and Kill Devil Hills.
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That's where they're all hanging out on the beach.
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I mean, you could walk across the people. There are so many of them on the beach.
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But I haven't seen that down here today.
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No, we have a, it's a different population. So we have ORV beaches,
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which is where you can drive your vehicles on the beach.
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And a lot of those sections are, you know, people that come here year after
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year. or the locals or fishermen.
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That's how they get out to surf fish. In front of the houses,
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that's where no vehicles can drive.
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And that's where a lot of our pedestrian traffic is. Oh, I gotcha. I gotcha.
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Talk to me real quick about your staffing. So our staffing,
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so for our paid summer staffing, which was created just to kind of keep up with
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the uptick in calls in the summer, we have approximately 25 employees to cover
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that Monday through Saturday.
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But then our volunteer basis, we probably have close to 40 volunteers.
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So volunteers can show up even when our paid staffing's on duty to help out,
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give us a little more manpower.
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So we have a good amount of people. And what's nice about it too is,
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is our volunteers are spread out through each village.
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So Avon, Buxton, Frisco, Hatteras. So they could be closer to a call than even
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our paid staffing at times. So, but the volunteers, do they work a regular shift? They don't.
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So it's more of if a call comes out, they go.
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Okay, because, you know, I told you earlier, I started out with a volunteer rescue squad. Mm-hmm.
00:16:36.519 --> 00:16:41.379
And we had shifts. Of course, we were in the building with the ambulance.
00:16:41.659 --> 00:16:47.139
Yeah. You know, and we had 12-hour shifts or 24-hour shifts,
00:16:47.199 --> 00:16:48.499
depending on what you wanted to work.
00:16:48.639 --> 00:16:53.139
Mm-hmm. and if like with the fire department.
00:16:54.054 --> 00:16:57.174
They would sound the alarm if there was a fire, and we would go run into the
00:16:57.174 --> 00:16:58.794
station and grab the equipment. Yeah.
00:16:59.194 --> 00:17:05.254
If you see something out on the beach, how do you guys, how do you get notified?
00:17:06.014 --> 00:17:11.134
And do you have a volunteer respond if they're close?
00:17:11.874 --> 00:17:15.974
So, like, if we're patrolling the beach? Yeah. So, a lot of times we'll call
00:17:15.974 --> 00:17:20.054
into our 911 center on the radio and let them know kind of what the situation is.
00:17:20.114 --> 00:17:24.274
Gotcha. And we can page it out, which would be alerting everyone else,
00:17:24.414 --> 00:17:26.274
if we think we need more manpower.
00:17:27.094 --> 00:17:33.254
Now, say there's a water rescue dispatch on the beach and our water rescue team is already out there.
00:17:33.454 --> 00:17:37.314
Our volunteers can still show up and, you know, help with whatever medical or
00:17:37.314 --> 00:17:39.234
whatever side of things that they can help with.
00:17:39.234 --> 00:17:46.694
So if there's, if you have a visitor out there with the family and little Jimmy
00:17:46.694 --> 00:17:53.314
gets pulled out and they call 911, they'll first notify the guys that are on the ATVs?
00:17:53.474 --> 00:17:56.494
Well, you know, our pager will go off, right? Oh, okay.
00:17:56.674 --> 00:17:59.434
And because we are integrated with the 911 system.
00:17:59.794 --> 00:18:04.574
Oh, okay. So we're all notified by phone and pager and everything like that.
00:18:04.794 --> 00:18:08.114
And so our water rescue team's typically the first ones there just because they're
00:18:08.114 --> 00:18:11.034
already on the beach. But our volunteers are also, you know,
00:18:11.154 --> 00:18:12.454
notified by pager and everything.
00:18:12.654 --> 00:18:15.674
So they'll show up if needed. Very cool, man.
00:18:16.374 --> 00:18:20.534
I'm just I'm blown away by how much y'all do.
00:18:20.834 --> 00:18:24.134
Well, and it's it's really cool because, you know, like we were talking about,
00:18:24.254 --> 00:18:27.154
our members are so highly trained in different aspects.
00:18:27.474 --> 00:18:33.434
And so, you know, we have most of our members have their own 800 radio and they
00:18:33.434 --> 00:18:36.594
have all the medical bag and supplies that they would need to,
00:18:36.634 --> 00:18:39.194
you know, handle a call until EMS got there. whatever.
00:18:39.954 --> 00:18:45.574
And we give all of our members equipment. So like if they are part of like they've
00:18:45.574 --> 00:18:49.314
passed all the swimming requirements, then they'll be given fins and buoys and
00:18:49.314 --> 00:18:51.734
all the things that they need to execute a rescue on their own.
00:18:51.914 --> 00:18:56.914
I remember those days of volunteer riding around with it on that mess of my car.
00:18:57.574 --> 00:19:02.234
We are a non-transport agency though. So like we respond to a medical call.
00:19:02.374 --> 00:19:05.034
We wait until EMS gets there for them to transport.
00:19:05.254 --> 00:19:07.934
But you can still, I mean, like you said you're an
00:19:07.934 --> 00:19:10.894
amt right yeah you can still start
00:19:10.894 --> 00:19:14.334
giving care or whatever until ems
00:19:14.334 --> 00:19:17.754
gets there and then they have they'll transport yep where's
00:19:17.754 --> 00:19:21.794
the closest hospital outer banks hospital in nags head so it's about an hour
00:19:21.794 --> 00:19:26.234
gosh but we do have our own helicopter like i'm sure chief collins has gone
00:19:26.234 --> 00:19:31.954
over so it is nice when we do have a higher acuity call we may have to fly them
00:19:31.954 --> 00:19:35.834
out from here so they'd probably be going either Norfolk or Greenville.
00:19:36.114 --> 00:19:39.874
Yeah, they're on my list, too. I'm going to try to get them in.
00:19:40.934 --> 00:19:44.294
Then get up there and talk to them because that's...
00:19:45.565 --> 00:19:51.305
I think Chief said there's only a few counties in the country where they own the helicopter.
00:19:51.485 --> 00:19:55.765
And it's paramedic run because it's not flight nurses. Yeah, that's insane.
00:19:57.785 --> 00:20:01.205
All right, well, trying to think of anything we haven't covered.
00:20:01.665 --> 00:20:07.005
I've seen so much, I wish I could just pull it out of my brain and put it in this microphone.
00:20:08.145 --> 00:20:12.945
Anyway, give me the last word on Dare County. What's going to keep you here?
00:20:12.945 --> 00:20:16.725
I think the community-based aspect really draws me in.
00:20:16.845 --> 00:20:20.465
And it's, you know, the winter, fall, spring, when the population isn't very
00:20:20.465 --> 00:20:23.285
high, it is still beautiful here.
00:20:23.525 --> 00:20:28.845
I mean, you know, you can get away from the beach. You can go in the woods, and it's peaceful.
00:20:29.145 --> 00:20:32.945
And it's very much you hear the island time. We're on island time,
00:20:33.025 --> 00:20:34.505
and that is very true here. Yeah.
00:20:34.705 --> 00:20:40.005
Well, you know, I've told you a couple of times today that I spend a lot of
00:20:40.005 --> 00:20:41.345
time in the Florida Keys.
00:20:41.925 --> 00:20:47.365
And it reminded me of the Florida Keys without the palm trees because of the geography. Yeah.
00:20:47.885 --> 00:20:53.145
But where are the woods at? So in Buxton, we actually have like the coastal
00:20:53.145 --> 00:20:55.065
preserve and then the National Park Service.
00:20:55.205 --> 00:20:57.425
We actually have some woods in there as well.
00:20:57.625 --> 00:21:01.145
So it's kind of hidden from people. People don't think about it.
00:21:01.145 --> 00:21:04.445
And people aren't coming here to look for woods. Yeah, that's true too.
00:21:04.585 --> 00:21:08.405
And I mean, on the ride, I don't get down this far very often.
00:21:08.405 --> 00:21:12.285
And my wife loves KDH and up that way.
00:21:12.445 --> 00:21:14.645
So that's usually as far as we go.
00:21:14.825 --> 00:21:20.165
But I know for most of my ride this morning, I looked either direction and all
00:21:20.165 --> 00:21:22.345
I saw was water. I didn't see any woods anywhere.
00:21:22.965 --> 00:21:25.945
So I'll have to find the woods before I leave. Yeah, our geography is really
00:21:25.945 --> 00:21:30.505
weird because Highway 12, you can see, you know, ocean sound most places,
00:21:30.665 --> 00:21:31.845
especially in between the villages.
00:21:31.985 --> 00:21:34.785
And then you get in the villages and you can actually get into some woods.
00:21:34.785 --> 00:21:38.245
So it's pretty nice, especially, like, going on a run or, you know.
00:21:39.825 --> 00:21:44.385
I tell you, you've educated me today, and I appreciate it.
00:21:44.965 --> 00:21:49.965
All right, young lady, well, I appreciate the time. I appreciate you sitting down here talking to me.
00:21:50.685 --> 00:21:55.485
And I know you said you were going to do something else down the road. Good luck in that.
00:21:55.745 --> 00:21:59.525
Thank you. But I think I'll always be able to find you here eventually. You will.
00:21:59.625 --> 00:22:06.925
I'll be here. All right, ladies and gentlemen, that was Captain Greenwood from Hatter's Ocean Rescue.
00:22:07.865 --> 00:22:11.445
Thanks for listening. Take care of yourself, watch your six,
00:22:11.625 --> 00:22:14.005
and be good to each other. We'll talk to you down the road.
00:22:14.965 --> 00:22:19.065
You have been listening to the First Responders Podcast with your host, Brian Miller.
00:22:19.565 --> 00:22:24.205
Please tune in for future episodes of this podcast. Our podcast is dedicated
00:22:24.205 --> 00:22:28.485
to the men and women who serve the public as first responders. Thank you.