Calgary Floods Rescue

Log Title: Calgary Floods Rescue

Characters: Chance, NPC Waffles, NPC Dr. Miller, Lifeline, Evac, Lift-Ticket, & Greenshirts aplenty

Location: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Date: June 20, 2013

Summary: When flood waters threaten to overtake the city of Calgary, GI Joe sends a rescue unit to assist the Canadian authorities.

Southwest Canada - North America

Towering mountains rake the skies in the southwestern part of Canada. Sculpted peaks of rock point to the heavens, snow-capped tops glistening in whatever light there may be. A band of grey, brown and red rock stretches from the perma-frost to the treeline of dark green-blue evergreens. Roads and railroads worm their way through the Rocky Mountains, and trickling ice-cold streams make their way downhilll to the basins, to the Pacific ocean on one side and the Alberta Plains on the other.

The City of Calgary is currently in its' first State of Emergency in over nintety years. Either Canadians have very high standards for what constitutes an 'emergency' or they just got damn lucky. But now, with over a week of heavy rainfall and snowmelt in the nearby Rocky Mountains, over half the province was in Flood Warning mode. The city itself was overstocked with volunteers, including it seems, a team of Joes offering their expertise in such things.

Though still tender from his recent run in with Buzzsaw, the half-canadian 910 was here with the others, currently wading through ankle-deep water to help stock sandbags along the Elbow River not far from Zoo Island (for the Zoo was mostly on an island in the river, one that was not that high out of the NORMAL water levels. Curiously, all the foreign animals were on the island, while native wildlife and dinosaurs were on the shore beside it). His face was red as he hauled the sand, before being tagged out for a break, and going to check on the other Joes at the emergency station, one set up to deploy sandbags, give directions and if need be, fish folk out of the river.

Lifeline is deploying in his usual way -- on a Calgary-bound Tomahawk, piloted by Lift-Ticket. Other rescue personnel are also here, preparing to deploy.

"I told you the first time," Lift-Ticket tells Lifeline flatly, "And I'll tell you AGAIN, since you didn't LISTEN the first time. Stay *away* from her, she - is - trouble! That's my advice."

"...I don't remember asking you for advice," Lifeline says as he checks his gear bag.

Dr. Michel Miller, combat medic-in-training, was up in the Tomahawk with Lifeline, carefully triple-checking her supplies. Best be prepared for everything. "He's just looking out for you, Lifeline." she says calmly, brushing a stray strand of faded gold hair behind her ear.

Glancing up as he hears a familiar thrup-thrup of helicopter blades, Michael grins and waves at the Tomahawk, recognising it as it moved to land in a nearby ankle-deep parking lot. "Cavalry has arrived!" he states to the other greenshirts there, who start to hustle and prepare things - broken bags to be removed, and shovels and stuff to fill new ones as he ducks to jog towards the Tomahak carefully to see who was arriving "Lifeline! Lift-Ticket!" he shouted, getting a spray of muddy water all over him, his boots soggy and pants just as wet. "Just in time! They're diverting a few ambulances this way!"

The river, roiling, muddy, ice cold from the mountains water, rumbled in its' overflowing banks. The exact 'drop off' was no longer seen, and logs and debris drift by as well, and the occasional uprooted tree.

Evac is on the chopper, checking his own gear and politely ignoring the conversation between Lifeline and Lift-Ticket (tho Lift-Ticket is TOTALLY right!).

"I know. We've been best friends ever since the first time we argued, and a thousand arguments later, we're still besties," Lifeline tells Dr. Miller, then peers down toward Mike. "...You ready? It's time to get moving." And he's already gone, heading down on the wench into the cold river to recover as many people as he can.

Lift-Ticket just smirks. He KNOWS he's right.

Evac grabs his gear and repels down quickly, joining the other Joes in the rising water. He calls out to 910, "What's the situation?"

The doctor grins and shakes her head, slinging her water-proof medical bag over her shoulder, joining Evac and the others in the river. "So, this is how Command is to acclimate me to mud and toil. Fair enough." She's still grinning.

As the Helicopter hovers overhead, Mike waves at the others from below, offering a hand to keep them steady in the turbulous winds. The water around their feet is just as cold as it looked as he grinned somewhat "So far, no deaths reported. They're overstocked with volunteers. Evacuations going smoothly. We're to watch the river and make sure nobody is in it, as well as be an emergency ER clinic."

there's a loud ripping sound, and across the river, a large tree suddenly topples in with a humongous SPLASH. "... Jeez." adds Mike. His radio chirps in his ear and he pekrs up "Something spotted though in the water. I guess you arrived just in time" he adds to Evac and Miller as they too swing down, turning to look upstream, a bright orangey-brown object fast approaching mid-stream.

Evac goes into Action Medic mode, double-checking that his gear is secure and wading deeper as the waters threaten the nearby meeting point where the helicopter is landing.

Since he's just that completely committed to what he does, Lifeline's already canvassing the water, which is pretty awful as it's carrying everything that was upstream -- pollutants and all. But in the winch he's awfully close to it. He needs to be close enough to pull people *out*, but not too close to fall *in*, and the difference between the two is mere centimeters. He doesn't see any people at first...a few dead animals and a lot of debris, but no people. But when once the orangey-brown thing comes into view, he tries to see what it is.

"Waffles! Move the trucks up a bit!" calls over 910 as he too wades fowards, then stops and starts to unwind a line, offering it to Evac and whoever was going ahead "I'll take Anchor!" he calls, although of course, one of the jeeps was going to be the REAL anchor. He was just the one furthest back as he offers the line clips to the others, so that they all stayed linked together as the thing staarts to approach faster, a squalling sound of distress coming from it. Its going to pass FAST. "Lifeline, do you see it?"

It was rather small, the size of a small child, and looked kind of fuzzy, but was definitely movingt.

Evac wades closer to Lifeline, clipping 910's safety line to his harness.

Dr. Miller follows Lifeline's lead ans scans the river, trusting his judgement in this situation. Michel was beginning to think that the ladder to becoming a Joe was a series of hazing rituals. Not that she minded that fact. "Is that a dog?" she calls out over the raging current. She wades a bit more in to intercept the object, careful of the current.

"Oh, affirmative on that --" Lifeline can definitely see that's a kid, now. "Evac, can you grab him??" He sees where this rapid flow of dirty, muddy water is going, and that kid is on a beeline course towards Evac. "Not a dog -- definitely a child," he tells Dr. Miller quickly, readying a second line if needed. He hopes it won't be needed, but this mud is moving so fast...

"I'm ready to go when you are." calls over 910 and he blinks "... Dogs arent orange. Is that a tiger?" he asked, halfway alarmed, even while the two medics found themselves fast in waist deep and then fully deep water. hope they brought flotation devices. On the shore, Waffles stayed in the truck, engine idling, ready to pull them all ashore if need be. It wouldnt be FUN but it would get them out. There was no no longer a visible riverbank, just muddy water everywhere. on occasion submerged things bumped into legs and such, and on occasion a fish slapped someone.

Evac says softly, "Got 'im, Lifeline! I'm on it!"

GAME: Evac PASSES a DEXTERITY roll of Average difficulty.

GAME: Evac PASSES a STRENGTH roll of Average difficulty.

Evac grabs the kid, pulling him in quickly and hoisting him up above the water, suddenly wishing he wasn't one of the shorter male Joes...

Dr. Miller makes a decision that she's better off on... 'dry' land, dry meaning 'not completely underwater'. Besides, someone's going to need to medically evaluate the child once he's on land. "Hand him to me!" she calls out once she's in position to take the kid. She immediately starts checking the child for injuries.

Lifeline looks ready to dive into the muck to get Evac out -- this is how Really Bad Situations happen. They kind of stack one bad thing against another, until it's a veritable Jenga pile of disaster.

The kid is mostly exhausted at this point, but had been holding onto a log as he grabs onto Evac, face red with cold as he sputters a bit, eyes blinking, still awake. 910 gruns as he keeps his grip, mostly working to keep the line from going under the water and pulling other joes with it, the jeep the actual anchor as he calls over "Steady as we go! Good work you got him!" he shouts, no doubt Evac handing the kid down the line to the others, Waffles preparing a woolen blanket back in the jeep for now. "Tree! Tree!"

Yup, there's a tree coming.

Evac's dark eyes widen as the tree approaches. He tries to quickly use Lifeline's assistance to hand the kid off to Miller before the tree arrives to swamp them all...

Dr. Miller holds the kid to her chest, as she lurches out of the way of impending disaster. This has the potential of being a bad nightmare in weeks to come. "You okay son?" she asks the little child softly, sounding calm for his sake.

Seeing the tree is far too close to avoid, Lifeline thinks of something quickly -- he jumps AT Evac, which seems kind of an insane thing to do, and both men disappear under the mud -- just as the tree rolls over the area where they had just disappeared.

Some moments later, they resurface, and Dr. Miller might see that Lifeline jumped with the extra line he prepped, so now he can pull Evac to safety. "Sorry about that...only way out was...was down," he gasps.

GAME: Evac FAILS an INTELLIGENCE roll of Average difficulty.

Evac sputters and spits out mud, not quite sure what happened.

"Edwi-" an astonished 910 shouts, even though he was furthest from the joes. Instinctively he rushes forwards - and is yanked hard to a halt by the jeep attached to his hip. "GACK!... Sweet merciful roddenberry..." he muttered, relaxing as he saw the two medics reappear in the watery mud, now past the tree as he shouts at Waffles, starting to winch all four of them in for now, reaching for hands to help the Doctor ashore first, the blanket offered to him immediately.

GAME: Evac PASSES an INTELLIGENCE roll of Average difficulty.

Evac struggles a moment before he figures out what happened, and then leans on Lifeline for support while he tries to regain his footing.

GAME: Evac PASSES an ENDURANCE roll of Average difficulty.

Other Greenshirts reach for the doctors as they get within range too, 910 'directing' the line as the other Joes are pulled ashore as well with help, a few cheers going up as well, blankets offered and water to rinse faces "You okay Edwin? Evac? " he asked, pausing "And Doctor Miller... everyone okay? "

The boy coughs a few times and nods, still a bit breathless.

Once winched onto dry land, Lifeline immediately checks to see if Evac made it through all of that. Last he could see, the other medic was moving and OK, but it was all too easy to get caught up in that mess. He wraps his own blanket around Evac. Naturally.

Dr. Miller manages (barely) to keep herself steady in the heavy mud. She takes the offered blanket, and wraps the child up tightly to keep him warm. "No injuries, but he's frightened and chilled." She hands the boy off to waiting greenshirts, quietly reassuring him that the heroes are here to keep him safe. "I'm fine. Evac, did you swallow anything? How about you, Lifeline, all clear?"

Waffles finishes with the winch and helps Miller with the child into the back of the jeep, the water flowing around the tires now "We gotta get back further to dry... well, less-flooded land." he advises to them as he starts up the engine, 910 starting to reel in the line carefully, up to his waist now as he ensures it didnt tangle, and pulling out branches snagged on the way in. "Hey Mike, what's that? " Mike paused and looked behind them as another, larger orange thing started to float by on a branch.

"Is that a Tiger??"

GAME: Evac PASSES an ENDURANCE roll of Average difficulty.

Lifeline nods, indicating he's good. He looks like he was just dipped in a giant bucket of mud and sloshed around a few times, but he's good to go. He glances over toward Dr. Miller, and notes to himself that the rescued child is in good hands.

Evac nods quickly, shaking his head to clear away more muddy water. "I'm OK. Thanks. Just needed a moment." Between SEAL and PJ training, Evac is pretty tough

Steel-Brigadier 910 stares at the Aman tiger as it floated by, wet but not at all distressed seeming, before he comes to and turns to climb into the jeep next to the others, shaking muddy water off of his feet as he goes "... We'll let the zoo know. We have a planned contact point further upstream where the land rises further. The river widens there too so it wont be as deep. Everyone okay? " he asked the joes in the back, his breath almost visible from the cold air.

Evac watches the tiger go by. "Uh, oh. I didn't see that tiger-ocean movie... anyone got any bright ideas?"

Lifeline watches the tiger glide past. "...Dangerous in that river in more ways than one," he notes, nodding. That's all Mr. 'Tiger Force' can think of at a time like this.

Evac says, "I hope the escaped animals won't be killed... we may have to get Link here..."

"Tigers can swim... I think he'll be okay. " admits the Brigadier to the others as the jeep starts to rumble out, carefully joining other traffic. Dumptrucks were rumbling by, full of dirt, gravel and other things as police and others go by, waving the vehicles in various directions as Waffles drove, avoiding debris as fast as it was cleared "I think we'll leave him to the Zoo experts though." he nods at Evac

"Yeah. Its an endangered species. They have cubs too. Hope they're okay."

The boy coughs a few more times and gets some water, giving his name as Robert Bruce.

Dr. Miller waits until everyone else is safe before finding a spot in the jeep. "I'm alright, Michael. Just a bit winded is all. Cold water really knocks the breath from you." She's muddy, cold, and her boots will take at least fifteen minutes to clean, but she's deifinetly enjoying the thrill of hard work. "I hope so as well, Evac." She turns to the boy. "Robert, is it. I'm Michel. Can you tell me how you ended up in the river? Where is your family?"

Evac scans the water for more human victims

"We were on the rooftop and I got blown off by the helicopter. I'm a good swimmer." remarks the boy as he huddles up close now, warming fast. The water was now quite watery now, just looking muddy as it rushed past. A boat patrol rumbled by carefully, avoiding other trees. An ambulance blew by them, heading the same direction.

Michael nods to Dr. Miller "I bet. My boots will be stiff as steel when they dry out." he remarks to his soggy leathers.

Abruptly the jeep jolted to a halt, throwing anyone unjprepared forwards. "Jeez! Waffles what's up!"

Lifeline smiles, watching Dr. Miller interact with young Robert. If he ever needs justification for taking the crazy risks he takes, just one saved life makes it all worth it. Then, he braces himself as the jeep suddenly stops.

Dr. Miller puts a hand on the boy's shoulder, comfortingly. "You're a lucky boy too. Don't worry; we'll get you back to your family." She braces the boy as the jeep stops. "Is the road blocked?"

Uttering a curse, Waffles calls over "Yeah. Tree just came down in front of me. Not a big one though. Mike, you want to help move it?I think we can do it." Mike sighs and stands, zipping back up his jacket as he grins at the other Joes "back into the wet I guess. Duty calls right? Anyone want to help? We'll be out of here faster with more hands...

"Sure. I get to try out my new muscles," Lifeline quips with a serious expression as he gets out. Only Mike would understand that one...

Dr. Miller looks around as the various greenshirts pile out to lend a hand in moving the road debris. She isn't exactly the strong type, so she elects to stay in the vehicle, keeping Robert company. "How are you feeling, better?" she asks, smiling at the kid.

"Sleepy." admits the youth, taking it rather calmly. "Is it okay to sleep? I dont remember, there's something you dont sleep after having done to you." he admits, furrowing his brow as he looked from one to the other. Waffles climbed out with 910 and Lifeline, Mike chuckling at that "Break them in eh?"

Evac jumps down as well. He's short, but pretty powerfully strong.

The tree was indeed, a small one for trees, but still enough to block the jeep as 910 glanced at its' roots and other things "I think it would be easier..." he said "If we all lifted that end and kind of... turned it, to lay pointing along the road. " he explains to the other Joes, the water only trickles around their ankles now.

Evac nods, and braces himself to push the tree with the others, at 910's instructions.

GAME: Evac FAILS a STRENGTH roll of Average difficulty.

GAME: Steel-Brigadier 910 PASSES a STRENGTH roll of Average difficulty.

Evac curses in Spanish as he struggles to find good footing.

"In America, we'd throw it clear off the road," Lifeline points out as he moves to assist.

GAME: Lifeline PASSES a STRENGTH roll of High difficulty.

GAME: Evac PASSES an AGILITY roll of Average difficulty.

Evac barely manages to keep from falling on his face

A laugh from 910 as he helped to lift the tree, his boots a little sturdier it seems as the foliage was carefully moved "We dont have the strength for that today Lifeline. That and nowhere to THROW it." this was downtown Calgary, and it was a mess too. Another dump truck rumbled on by, shaking the ground. A fish splashed past Evac as well, a shockingly large one.

Evac glances at the fish as he struggles upright.

"Do you feel dizzy at all? Sick to your stomach?" Dr. Miller looks the boy over, examinng for signs of a head trama. "Any ringing in the ears, perhaps?" She's very sweet about the whole thing, being careful not to make the boy uncomfortable

"Yeah, I know. Just giving you a difficult time in your own backyard, basically." Lifeline's been in a really...well, it's hard to say 'chipper' with him, especially when he's on duty, but he's really been in a good mood this week overall. Better than usual. "You OK, Evac? I didn't dunk you in the mud too hard, did I?"

Evac says softly, "At least after this maybe we can get in some good fishing."

The fish was a canadian pike, a foot long, with an upturned snout and a rather nasty attide. It thrashed again and then dissapeared into the muddy water.

"No... no... well, a little sick. I think I swallowed some water." admits the youth as he was looked over. Bumps, bruises, but no real marks. A few scratches probably from branches on his hands.

"You okay Evac? " 910 chuckles as well as they finish with the tree, snapping a few branches off as well as they finish moving it.

Evac shakes his head again, and gives 910 and Lifeline a confident smile. "I'm OK. It's fine. Thanks." He seems more embarrassed than disoriented.

"Okay, tree is taken care of..." Waffles states as he offers Evac a hand back into the jeep "Let's truck on. We're almost at the evacuation centre, then we can get this boy in touch with his family." he remarks "And take a quick breather too." he adds softly.

Evac gratefully accepts the hand up to the Jeep.

"OK, sounds good." Lifeline slips back into the jeep, sopping wet with disease-laden flood water.

Dr. Miller smiles as she finished her checkup. "You should be alright for a nap, Robert." she says, making sure he's wrapped up. As the Joes pile back in, she turns to one of them. "Do we know what kind of pollutants are in the water? Anything that could be health-threatening?"

Steel-Brigadier 910 frowns as he thinks "While this is a million person city, most of this water is washing down from the mountains. I dont think its bad as say, New York would be. They're relatively enviromentally cautious. " he admits "But I also dont know what's been washed INTO the river. I dont think we're going to turn into mutants though." he admits.

Evac smirks. "I wouldn't count on that. I wonder if the X-Men need another Mexican-American."

"Oh, absolutely. Cyanobacteria, E. Coli, aspergillis, every manner of pollutant and chemical," Lifeline admits. "Anything in there can make you sick."

Steel-Brigadier 910 peers at Lifeline "... I stand correct. or sit." he remarks, moving to do so with a SQUISH sound.

Dr. Miller frowns, holding Robert just a little tighter. "This child will need to go to a hospital then; he ingested some river water." The docter rakes her free hand through her hair, not caring HOW she looks, just as a nervous habit. "I hope all of you boys are up on your vaccines?"

"There's probably ambulance crews who can do that at the Evac Centre." remarks 910 as he refreshes his memory, and nods "Yup. I'm good for every country this side of either ocean. " he reports, the boy falling asleep. He scratches at his leg, then blinks and rolls his pant leg up. It had come undone in the water and there was a leech attached "Oh ick!"

Evac grins. "Don't worry about me... I got all my shots."

"It would probably be for the best if the boy got checked on, because next to the typical state of the Ganges River in India, flood waters are the nastiest, most volatile mixture of pollutants one can find themselves submerged in." Lifeline wishes he could do something for the boy, but he came out here prepped for recovery and transport, not triage care.

"Canadian health care may be socialized, but its not THAT bad." joked Mike as he poked at the leech "Anyone have a lighter? "

Waffles navigated the one way streets, although at this point in time the one-way-ness was largely ignored as they started to pull up into an area where the ground was wet, but not covered in water, and other vehicles were about at an evacuation centre.

Evac rides in the Jeep to the meet-up point, ready to help in any way he can. This is more the stuff he trained for, and is a welcome break from sitting around waiting to fight Cobra.

Dr. Miller's eyebrows raise as she hears Michael as for a lighter. She turns around to look at the man, and notices the leech on his leg. "In what backwater place did you learn that burning off leaches was a good idea?!" Michel's voice as taken the tone of a scolding mother. "That's a terrible idea! Burning the leech causes it to vomit into the wound, increasing the chance of infection!" She 'tsks' as she opens up her medical bag, and pulls out her tools to extract the leech. "Now hold -still-, Michael."

Steel-Brigadier 910 jolts a little in surprise at the tone from the woman, but frowns at her a little bit "... I didnt know that." he admits simply at that, unruffled save the frown as he rolled up the pant leg to let her remove it then "That kind of makes sense though in a way now that I think of it. Ready when you are then." he remarks.

Just then they pull into the Evac Centre, parking where they could to start to offload the boy and other things now, firemen and officers moving that way and that, surprisingly well organized and not at all frantic.

Lifeline eyes Dr. Miller appreciatively. She'll make a fine Joe someday. "Thank you for that."

Evac hops off the Jeep, checking his waterproof bag to make sure his own medical supplies are OK.

Just then, an emegency tow truck rumbles by in the water pulling behind it a small boat, with two firefighters kicking back, with sticks held like fishing poles as they went past.

Dr. Miller continues to 'tsk', although not so upset anymore. In fact, a little grin is forming. "And now you know. And knowing is half the battle." She deftly removes the leech, causing only a little pain. She quickly cleans and disinfects the wound, and bandages it tight. "It'll bleed for a while because of the leech's saliva, but you should be okay. Just try and keep the wrapping dry."

"How's everything?" Lift-Ticket radios. Lifeline answers the radio.

"We made it to the evacuation center, and rescued a child," Lifeline reports.

"OK, great. Are you going to take my advice and change your cellphone number this weekend?" Lift-Ticket asks.

"No," Lifeline says.

"She's going to play you like a fiddle. Just like last time," Lift-Ticket begins to argue, but Lifeline clicks the radio off.

"... I dont think I can keep that promise." admits the man "But I'll get it checked again as soon as I get a chance to dry out." promises Mike with a grin as he hops out as well, watching the Firefighters and letting out a laugh "Welcome to canada, Gi Joe. " he remarks to the others as he offers to help lift Robert down to bring inside with the others.

Evac grins. "Thanks. Wish it was better circumstances..."

Dr. Miller sighs. "Well, that'll have to do, Michael." The woman smiles, and packs her bag up. She jumps out of the jeep, boots scwelching as she lands. "Just point me where I'm needed." she says, running a free hand though her hair again.

Evac's short hair dries quickly, even in the high humidity. With no immediate emergencies at hand, he quickly begind helping with sandbagging and supplies.

Lifeline decides he doesn't want to go back to the Tomahawk and have Lift-Ticket harp on him about his ex-wife. There's other things to do...like help evacuate residents from low-lying areas. He's motivated both by a desire to do something good, and a desire not to be nagged about certain heiresses. Quietly, he makes his way to the City Centre and the triage staging grounds to assist those in need.

Evac is content to leave Lifeline alone about his personal life, and instead focus on helping the local citizens with the flooding. It's 2011 all over again...