After one of these emergencies starts happening, there's not much point in bringing in a swiftwater rescue team with a six-hour response time. Too often, the actual swiftwater rescues are done by people who are on the spot, regardless of their level of capability, which is why you need to train everybody, the paramedics, the cops, the sheriffs, everybody. Victims in swift water are either going to be rescued, or not rescued, by whoever is there. And the rescuers are either going to do it right, lose the victim, or become victims themselves. In terms of education, we need to convince people that water rescue has different facets to it.
Most people tend to think of water rescue as going out and dragging the lake for a body.
With that mind-set, it's not surprising that so many people die. There are a lot of very generalized water rescue courses, most of which are patterned on the old Red Cross water safety course, which is all flat-water. With the exception of California, in general, there's very little awareness that something like swiftwater rescue even exists.