Forestville firefighters, going on 36 hours, make water rescue near Mother’s Beach

The five rescue firefighters with Forestville's mostly volunteer department hadn't slept in nearly 36 hours Wednesday afternoon when they got back into their boats.

Wearing wet suits and life jackets, they set out with glow sticks to mark powerlines that slung dangerously low over a Russian River that had swelled into a Mississippi-like torrent in preparation for nightfall.

Then a voice crackled over the radio: two men needed help evacuating from their River Drive house.

“That's the two we were talking to yesterday. They didn't want to leave,” said Capt. James Deurloo, 34, who was a two-year-old Guerneville toddler the last time a Russian River flood was as severe.

His partner firefighter-paramedic Mike Pierson shifted the throttle of the 12-foot flat bottom boat, using the current to push the vessel sideways from one eddy to another to head toward a cul-de-sac community underwater.

The mission Wednesday for Russian River-area first responders was to get more people out as the floodwater continued to rise. Since Tuesday morning when the river began swelling over its banks from rain, Forestville Fire Protection District firefighters had performed about 30 emergency evacuations, in addition to answering 20 reports of hazardous conditions such as mudslides and fallen powerlines plus medical emergencies. Two trees crashed into two houses in their 25 square mile district along the river - much of its northern half under water.

That's roughly 10 times the number of calls on a typical day.

“Our crews have been busy on the water,” Forestville Assistant Fire Chief John Franceschi said.

Franceschi was a captain during the infamous Valentine's Day flood of February 1986 when the river rose to 49.5 feet and swallowed much of Guerneville. He said this time the flood isn't as bad - the river crested at 45.5 feet at 10 p.m. Wednesday - because the community seems to be better prepared, more people in the lowlands appear to have gotten themselves out ahead of the rising water.

“There are a lot of people still up in the hills, and I imagine they will ride this out,” Franceschi said. “They have the food, the supplies, they've got the fireplaces going. A lot of people have been through this before.”

Wednesday, many of the emergency evacuations involved people who had hoped to stay but who became convinced to leave as the water continued rising even as the clouds opened up to allow moments of sunshine.

Seemingly nonstop, Forestville's water rescue crew ran evacuations with two firefighters trained in water rescues in a flat-bottom boat, another two on an inflatable raft and one more on a jet ski. They delivered people from flooded homes to shallow water, where National Guard teams in high-water vehicles drove people to safety.

In a small community along Mother's Beach, one of the river's most popular, Brian Peddinghaus and Jack Hulsey had hoped to ride out the storm at their home of more than two decades on River Drive. The river had swallowed Mother's Beach and the first-floor garage below the couple's second-floor living quarters.

Then Peddinghaus noticed a strong odor of gas and it smelled like something was burning. And then a passing firefighter commented on the power of the flooded river's current.

Measured at more than 71,000 cubic feet per second under the Hacienda Bridge, the floodwaters of the Russian River were rushing toward the ocean at a rate more than 65 times stronger than normal.

“We decided to get out,” said Peddinghaus, whose business Fife Creek Antiques and Collectibles in Guerneville, was also underwater. They called for help.

So on Hulsey's 86th birthday, he was carried down the stairs of his home on the back of Forestville fire engineer Eric Gromala and hoisted into an inflatable raft with a small bag and his small dog Jack Junior.

They were dropped off where Mirabel Road rose above the water line near Speer's Market and waited for a friend to pick them up.

Then, the Forestville crew got back into their boats and headed out again.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.