Travis County Emergency Unit
From TCEU
The Travis County Dive Team is a volunteer public service dive team in the Central Texas/Travis County/Austin area.
For the last thirty years, this dive team has provided underwater search and recovery assistance in Travis County and throughout central Texas since 1972. The Travis County Dive Team is one of the oldest public service dive teams in the Austin/Central Texas area.
The original roots of the Dive team are in the professional divers at University of Texas Advanced Research Lab [UT Advanced Research Labs website] who have contributed numerous resources to this Dive team as noted in the history pages below.
Please send website feedback and help requests to the TCEU Webmaster at: [TCEU Webmaster]
Contents
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General Information
TCEU 2007 Officers
Contact information for TCEU Officers and the Board of Directors
TCEU Rules and Bylaws Committee
Workarea for the Rules and Bylaws Committee
Training
Training schedule, docs and related training info.
Donation Information
Donation and TCEU officer contact info
The Captains Equipment report
7 total air tanks were discovered out of VIP and will be newly re-certified this weekend 2/17, one 50 cu/in needed hydro.
Please email roymandiver@netscape.com with your latest certifications and limitations if any. I also need to get a copy of members dive logs for 2006, please. It would be great to have them for the March meeting.
[email]
Callout Page
Email_Broadcast
This is the link to the Callout Notification Page
This page is to be used to alert TCEU team members whenever a callout is started
Current events
Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - Team Meeting - To be determined
- Agenda: December 5, 2007 Meeting Agenda
- Time: from 6:30PM - 8:30PM
- Location: To be determined
Wednesday, November 7, 2007 - Team Meeting - Waterloo Ice House
- Agenda: November 7, 2007 Meeting Agenda
- Time: from 6:30PM - 8:30PM
- Location: Waterloo Ice House; 1106 W 38th Street (across from Seton Hospital)
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 - Team Meeting - Waterloo Ice House
- Agenda: October 5, 2007 Meeting Agenda
- Time: from 6:30PM - 8:30PM
- Location: Waterloo Ice House; 1106 W 38th Street (across from Seton Hospital)
Awaiting Confirmation.
Saturday, October 13, 2007 - Training - Marble Falls
- Agenda: 10/13/2007 -- Lake Marble Falls
- Time: from 9:30am to ??
- Location: Lake Marble Falls
OCTOBER 13 TRAINING PLANS: Location will be at Lake Marble Falls--we will be looking for some key items to hopefully provide details for the cause(s) of a drag boat crash (yes, a real search!). More details will follow, but let's tentatively plan to be in the water at 10:00 a.m.
Dive safely, dive often! Neil
Previous Events
Sunday, September 9, 2007 - Annual Lake Travis Cleanup
- Agenda: Clean up Devils Hollow Area
- Time: Dive from 9:00am to 11:30am Shore Party from 11:30PM - 1:00PM
- Location: Meet at Mansfield?
A Great time had by all.
A very big hand to Shawn and Carolynn who helped organize this event and took care of some last minute paperwork.
Special Thanks to Dave, Dean, Bob, and Roy/Diane for providing Boats. We had plenty of space and some great transportation.
And a big thankyou to our divers: Bob, Dean, Diane, Gretch, Jack, Jan, Jerry, Joanna, Mike, Neil, Lew, Rick, Roy, Sharon, Shawn. We collected about 15 bags of trash and met up some of our old an new friends at the party afterwards.
A Special Welcome to our guest divers Bob and Joanna. We look forward to welcoming you as new members.
Wednessday, September 5, 2007 - Team Meeting - Waterloo Ice House
- Agenda: September 5, 2007 Meeting Agenda
- Time: from 6:30PM - 8:30PM
- Location: Waterloo Ice House; 1106 W 38th Street
Arrangements have been made for our monthly meeting. Please send out to the entire team.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007 6-8:30pm Waterloo Ice House 1106 W 38th Street (across from Seton Hospital)
Reservation is for the front room, same as last time and the room is reserved under my name.
Lori/VP TCEU Search and Recovery Team
Weekend, September 1-3, 2007 - Labor Day Volunteer Opportunity
- Agenda: Help watch out for people on busy Labor day weekend
- Time: from 12:00PM - 8:00PM
- Location: Windy Point (Bob Wentz park)
- Signup Sheet: September 2007 Laborday Signup Sheet
Please look at the times that you will be available for Windy Point in September. The dates are Sept. 1,2,and possibly Sept. 3, depending on how many people we have signed up. Please volunteer for this important service we do during the summer holidays.
We need at least 4 people signed up for each time slot.
Thanks for considering and giving at least 4 hours of your time!
Diane
Wednessday, August 1, 2007 - Team Meeting - Waterloo Ice House
- Agenda: August 1, 2007 Meeting Agenda
- Time: from 6:30PM - 8:30PM
- Location: Waterloo Ice House; 1106 W 38th Street
We have found a place and hopefully this will be THE ONE that we meet at each month.
This one is right next to the Mexican place we tried in the 26 Doors Shopping Center across the street from Seton Hospital. There is decent parking and they will take separate checks. The meeting is from 6:30-8:30pm.
Also if anyone is interested there will be a live band playing acoustics around 8:30 if you want to hang out after the meeting.
Remember to bring your liability information to the meeting re: Lake Travis Clean-up in September. We have Devil's Cove again!!
News
Successful recovery mission on Sep. 7, 2006
Dive team in the news
Team Pictures
TCEU 2007 Officers
Xmas Party pictures
TCEU Dive Team Picture
TCEU Dive Team in action
History
History of the Travis County Dive Team
Early History: 1972-74
The Dive Team got started in 1972 when Austin area law enforcement officials needed divers to recover some evidence. They believed that a gun used in a crime had been thrown into Town Lake. They turned to the University of Texas Applied Research Laboratory, known as "ARL", for assistance. ARL conducts research and development involving underwater projects. Some ARL engineers also work as divers on the underwater rigging of their projects. ARL engineer-divers recovered the gun and prosecutors used it as evidence to obtain a conviction.
In the early 1970's there were very few public service divers anywhere, and none in central Texas. In fact there were very few SCUBA divers of any kind in central Texas. Law enforcement officials were fortunate if they could find civilian divers to help in underwater evidence recovery. Rescue squads faced with reported drownings had to resort to dragging with grapples, which was seldom successful. As Austin and Travis County law enforcement agencies discovered what divers could do they turned to ARL more frequently for underwater search and recovery.
In March, 1973 some of the ARL divers started organizing an underwater search and recovery team to assist local emergency service agencies. In 1974 the team was organized as part of the Travis County Emergency Unit. The Travis County Emergency Unit
The Travis County Emergency Unit (TCEU) was the volunteer rescue squad for Travis County from the late 1960's through the 1970's. TCEU operated two rescue squads, one for the whole county north of the Colorado River and one south of the river. The Dive Team was set up as an independent part of TCEU. The rescue squads took care of area lighting and general surface support while the Dive Team was in charge of all aspects of dive operations.
The Travis County Sheriff's office (TCSO) has overall responsibility for missing persons operations and crime scenes throughout the County outside the City of Austin. The Sheriff's office and TCEU quickly learned that divers handled drowning recoveries much faster and more humanely than the old practice of grappling from boats. By the end of 1974 Travis County had abandoned surface dragging in favor of dive recovery operations. The Dive Team was also called in on water-related investigations and evidence searches. Surrounding counties and other agencies like the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) learned about the Travis County Dive Team and occasionally called for help from the Team.
The Dive Team kept a low profile, grew slowly, and built a solid reputation among central Texas emergency service agencies. We gradually took on members from the local diving community, but diver-engineers from ARL remain the central core of the Dive Team. They give us a base of divers with current skills and equipment for very deep water and other difficult diving operations. In Travis County the volunteer dive team includes some of the best professional divers around.
TCEU also added a Communications Squad, with a van equipped with a wide array of radio and telephone communications equipment. By the late 1970's TCEU had specialty services available through the Dive Team and the Communications Squad that went far beyond what most paid municipal emergency service organizations had.
The Dive Team gradually built up a supply of search and recovery equipment, some purchased and some home-made. We now have a variety of equipment for underwater search and recovery, vehicle recovery, and water rescue. Area dive shops have always provided strong support to the Team. We kept our equipment in a series of old TCEU trucks, eventually purchasing our own trailer in 1982 when the last of the TCEU trucks was scrapped. The Austin Fire Department Dive Rescue Team
The Austin Fire Department (AFD) has responsibility for rescue operations in the City of Austin. In the late 1970's we offered our assistance to AFD on a few difficult underwater recovery operations. AFD quickly learned what Travis County already knew about the value of search and recovery divers. By 1979 the Team was routinely called in on all underwater accident operations anywhere in Travis County. AFD also began organizing their own dive team. We provided training in dive operations and also supplied copies of our manuals with detailed descriptions of diving conditions in local lakes and quarries.
By 1981 AFD had their Dive Rescue Team in place. Staffed with on-duty paid firefighters, the AFD team can deploy rescue divers into Austin lakes within a few minutes. We occasionally assist AFD when they have multiple recovery operations at the same time, and AFD occasionally sends divers into Travis County for possible fast response rescue situations.
The Travis County Dive Team Today
By the late 1970's there had been dramatic improvements in rescue and emergency medical services. There was a network of volunteer Emergency Medical Service (EMS) First Responder agencies throughout Travis County. The volunteer Fire Departments and EMS agencies had taken over responsibility for rescue operations from the TCEU rescue squads. Eventually the TCEU rescue squads were disbanded. The old TCEU Communications Squad became a separate organization closely tied with the Travis County Sheriff's office. Today the Dive Team is the only remaining active part of the old TCEU. Our full title is still "Travis County Emergency Unit Dive Team". But most emergency service agencies just call us "the Dive Team".
ARL remains a strong supporter of the Team, and ARL diver-engineers still form the central core of the Team. We also have several members from the local diving community, many of whom are instructors.
Our diver-engineers from ARL are also pretty good engineers. They built a communications kit that is passed among team members weekly. The kit contains a cellular phone with data connector, a handheld 2-way radio with charger, and a console that can send messages to our alphanumeric pagers through the cellular phone. The kit has a rechargeable battery pack, a standard 110VAC power cord connector, and an inverter with an automobile cigarette lighter connector. The TCSO unit designation of the communications kit is "Dive Team 6", the primary responding diver.
We outgrew our first 5x8 trailer and replaced it with an 8x12 dual axle trailer. It is housed at the Travis County Precinct 2 garage facilities near the north end of Mansfield Dam. The TCSO unit designation of the trailer is "Dive Team 98."
We also operate a small outboard motorboat that belongs to the Sheriff's Office. With the number of larger patrol boats on Lake Travis we no longer use it for Lake operations. We occasionally take it on operations in rivers and large ponds where there are no other boats available.
In 1997 we started using full-face masks with voice communications gear. Full-face masks with voice communicators are becoming widely used among public service dive teams throughout the country. We originally wanted to get body recovery divers into full-face masks to provide better protection against water-born pathogens. But we quickly discovered that voice communications gave us a large improvement in safety and capability. The Team currently has seven Divator Mk.II masks with BuddyPhone II communicators, and several members have their own mask and communicator sets. We also have a surface communications console built into a portable kit with a tape recorder, headset, batteries, and spare parts.
By 1998 we routinely used voice communication to run surface-assisted search patterns with multiple divers. Several years ago we began using modular search lines made from 10-foot line segments with a loop on one end and a snap shackle on the other end. With diver-to-diver voice communications we can sweep line patterns through obstructed areas by breaking and reconnecting the modular line to get past obstacles.