Mexican Rescue Team that Aided in Flood Recovery Efforts in Central Texas Trains with Del Rio Fire & Rescue

DEL RIO, TX — On Monday, an interagency — and international — swift-water training session brought first responders from both Del Rio and Acuña, Coah, Mexico together. The joint emergency response training had been scheduled for July 14 since mid-June, but comes just two days after the Mexican team, known as Fundación 911, returned home to Acuña after employing these very drills in the real-world emergency flood zone in central Texas in early July. 

The American agenices involved included Val Verde County Fire Department, Del Rio Fire Department, DRPD, and the City of Del Rio’s Emergency Management Office represented by Amanda Aldaco. Fundación 911 is a bi-national non-profit that works with rescuers from both sides of the border, this time bringing firefighters from Acuña, Coahuila, Mexico across the border into Del Rio, TX. 

Given the decades of official “Amistad”, or friendship, between the two cities — as President Nixon in 1969 would speak on at the dedication of a then newly completed Amistad Dam which connects the two countries between Del Rio and Acuña on the Rio Grande: “The new Amistad Dam also testifies to the spirit of understanding and cooperation which binds our two countries” — bringing both side’s rescue teams together feels like a course of natural events. 

The training was a specific kind: swift-water rescue. So, to simulate the swift-water a rescuer would encounter — or had encounter in the flooded Guadalupe —Del Rio’s San Felipe Creek was utilized at one of its dammed sections and water was released at full pressure. 

“This is designed for, say we get flooding, and people go into a flooded area with their car…We are getting more proficient at getting in [the water] and being able to rescue them,” said Lt. Randy Frank of DRFD.

See video for further details and remarks from those at the scene and the Kerr County flood zone.