Drainage Ditch Dangers
COLORADO SPRINGS – Drainage ditches, especially those made of concrete, can be inviting in dry weather to kids with bikes and skateboards. However, a local firefighter reminds us the channels can become death traps when it rains.
Neil Raedel, a member of the Heavy Rescue team with the Colorado Springs Fire department, discussed the matter with NEWSCHANNEL 13 Tuesday in light of the heavy rain received by the area recently. He recalls the deaths of two boys swept away by a 2005 flash flood in Cottonwood Creek near Austin Bluffs and Research Parkways on the city’s northeast side. Raedel hopes that won’t happen again, and wants residents to learn from that tragedy.
“This would be the equivalent of a tsunami,” he explains. “It just comes out of nowhere. We can be here and the sun’s shining, but it’s raining 20 or 30 miles to the north. All of that water heads south. The farther south you go, it’s going to pick up steam.”
Experts say between three and six inches of water flowing in a drainage ditch are enough to knock a person off his feet. More water can pin a person under the water, tear off clothes and drown someone quickly. recovering the victim’s body may take several days. “There’s no control over that water,” says Raedel. “It doesn’t care about you or me. It’s got one purpose–and that’s to get where it’s going.”
Raedel says firefighters may risk their own lives trying to rescue someone trapped; and rushing water isn’t the only danger. “You’ve got to worry about concrete, rebar, trees, shopping carts, herbicides, pesticides, all the stuff that runs off parking lots.”
“The first thing we’re going to do, is just try and reach them with something long. If that doesn’t work, we’re going to throw bags out to them. Hopefully, they haven’t been in the water long enough that they’re hypothermic. They can hang on to that line, then we can just pull them in. Our last resort is actually going in the water after them.”
Raedel says no ditch is safe under any circumstances, and it’s best to stay out of them. He says he and his fellow firefighters regularly stop people they see in drainage ditches, to inform them of the dangers.
Ken Sampley, the city’s stormwater manager, agrees that drainage ditches–especially those made of concrete–can be dangerous. He says they’re designed to move as much water as possible, out of the city as quickly as possible.
Sampley says the city’s stormwater enterprise fee being paid by property owners, provides money to make safety improvements in some ditches. For example, workers recently installed a metal gate in a ditch at Cottonwood Creek. The device catches debris but also may catch someone who is trapped and provide a means of escape. Sampley says 75 of the gates will be installed throughout town. Also, rocks and concrete have been added to parts of Monument Creek to reduce erosion and slow the velocity of water.
The city of Colorado Springs sponsors an educational program called “Ditch Playing in Ditches.” For more information about it, visit the website.
