Man rescued from swollen East Verde

With water pouring into the cab, the man texted 911 for help.

Sgt. Cole LaBonte with the Gila County Sheriff’s Office responded, along with the local fire department. LaBonte was able to walk out to the man’s truck and tell him to hold tight while the other rescuers responded.

A group of volunteers from Tonto Rim Search and Rescue geared up and walked out with LaBonte to the truck. They pulled the man out through the window and, in a V pattern, walked him back to the shore.

Paramedics checked him out, but he refused further medical care.

The group from TRSAR was the same that LaBonte had spent the previous weekend with on the Salt River getting recertified as advanced swift water technicians.

“I spent three days doing 12-plus hours of training in the Salt River. It was flowing at 5,000 cubic feet per second. It was moving so fast it was all you could do to survive those rapids,” LaBonte said, adding, “I love this type of work.”

Crews were unable to recover the man’s pickup truck Wednesday night as it did not have tow hooks and the water was flowing too high to reach under and hook a rope to the frame.

With continued storms in the area, the truck has been moving further downstream every day.

On Friday, it was a mile or so from the crossing.

“It is wild that it made it that far,” LaBonte said.

The man will not be cited, as there were no road-closed barricades posted.

LaBonte said it is on the county roads department to get barricades up, but with the number of low-water crossings, they had not made it to the area yet.

Contact the editor at

abechman@payson.com