SoylentNews

Phoenix666 writes:

[Brian] Hunt became the 14th victim of the flood when his truck was swept off of a Route H bridge into the Pomme de Terre River the day after Christmas in 2016.

"It was flooding that night all around Springfield, Missouri," [volunteer firefighter]McKellips recalls. "It was around 40 degrees. Hunt was in the middle of the river, which at that point was probably 200 feet across," McKellips says. "We were so far away, and you could see the water rise – it was happening so quickly – and we weren't able to get enough equipment to them. We couldn't get to him."

The next day, McKellips and his father, Dr. Tom McKellips, a retired Springfield firefighter and now a volunteer firefighter in Walnut Grove, sat down at their kitchen table and started pitching ideas to help fire departments avoid losses like this in the future.

[...] The prototype flotation device, called the Last Chance, has three primary components – a specially designed stand, a pneumatic launcher and a projectile. The projectile, which looks a bit like a foam swimming pool toy, is the flotation device. The device weighs about 30 pounds and costs just over $100 to build.

McKellips' engineering background helped him evaluate the mechanics of materials, safety, price optimization, aerodynamics and rocketry concepts.

"It's fairly simple," McKellips says. "You use compressed air to launch the projectile a decent distance." Right now, the device is capable of launching the flotation device about 250 feet. The team is working on improvements that will extend that reach to well over 500 feet.

How would you rescue somebody trapped in a rising river?

Original Submission