IS RESCUE HELP FROM ACC NEEDED?

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

Today's Democrat-Gazette is carrying the continuing story of man missing after his vehicle was swept off Highway 236 in Lonoke County. Many state agencies are searching for the man. Could the ACC do anything to help?

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

The TV images make it look like searchers are using flat bottom boats to search through woods with water flowing through. Looks like whitewater kayaks would be ideal for maneuvering through the timber. A Mr. Hess is the missing person. He had time to call his wife to say his truck was being washed off Highway 236 just east of Jacksonville and North Little Rock. His truck was found, but was empty. It is hoped Mr. Hess found something to hold on to, but it has been 36 hours since his phone call was received.

The Lonoke County Sheriff's office can be reached at (501) 676-3000.

Do we have any search and rescue types out there?

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan

[Shark Attack]

Mike, your plan sounds good. However, the search may be best done by the many duck hunters who have spent many years in the area and know the ditches and shoots that traverse the area. Jon boats and folks with waders who are familiar with the area may be the best bet. If you do go, feel free to contact me, I can probably put a couple of folks and kayaks in my boat to shuttle out to the bayou.

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

I'm still recovering from back surgery. I was hoping some strong paddlers who have had rescue courses would have been able to move around in the flooded timber and get to places where the flat bottom boats couldn't go.

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan

[Cowper]

Tom’s post calling for volunteers to be added to a database for responding to situations just like this is stickied above. His phone number is available on our front page, under, “Contact Info”. One good thing to try first in a situation like this to try to contact Tom; he has many contacts and is known within Search and Rescue circles. And of course, he now has a list of those who have stated in advance they will try to assist when our skill set is needed.

For this particular case, my initial thoughts were that Wes had it right – duck hunters in small motorboats have the best chance of covering the most water. I’ve used canoes, kayaks, and small motorboats in flooded timber, and while the canoe can go a few places the motorboat can’t, I can cover much more territory with the motorboat. A small one can be dragged across shallow areas just like a canoe.

I contacted the Lonoke County sheriff’s office earlier today (Thursday). They gave my phone number to the Tri Community Fire because they are leading this effort. Tri Community called me back within the hour. I briefly explained that we had some folks who were willing to assist in the search if they were still accepting any volunteer help at this time. I also mentioned that some of our volunteers were trained in Swiftwater rescue. I’m not going into further details of our discussions out of sensitivity to the family, but the response was that they have a sufficient number of volunteers at this time. He seemed to sincerely appreciate the offer, but also said we were not needed at this time.

The message board is a good tool, but when a time-critical need might be present, there is too much risk that someone who could help may not even check the board that day. Get on the phone. Call somebody. Find out what is needed, and where volunteers should report. Some cases may need to be worked behind the scenes to call only those with certain skills or training, while in other cases a general message board post might be a good tool to get the message out to a broader circle of potential volunteers. But even with a post, call a few friends, and have them call others. And by all means, call Tom – he has the “master list” and knows how to make call-outs happen on an expedited basis.

LATE FRIDAY UPDATE: http://www.todaysthv.com/news/article/1 ... -barricade" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
"Carl Hess's body was found 150 yds from where officials found his truck on Highway 236 between Highway 31 and Highway 89."

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

The Hailstone effort seemed to be initiated by a posting. Calling or maybe emailing Tom sounds like a better system; there is an email address in the sticky note: SwiftwaterRescue @gmail.com, but no phone number or other notification procedure in the sticky topic.

Maybe Tom has a system he prefers; maybe news reports being relayed to him is not what he wants. I don't know if the ACC has contacted the Sheriff's offices of the various counties and told them of the resource so that they can notify the rescue database directly or through a phone tree or something if they want help.

Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

To help clear up the issue of how to acitvate an ACC search for missing persons in a swiftwater situation, I sent the following email to ACC President Tom Burroughs:

Tom,

I posted this past Wednesday about a man who was missing after his vehicle was swept off Highway 236 just east of North Little Rock, hoping to get some ACC paddlers trained in rescue to assist in the search. There was no response from the rescue call out database after several days of updating the post about the search for the man. The man's body was recovered several days after the initial post. Cowper posted that I should probably have called you directly. What method do you prefer? I don't know if you have set something up with the various sheriff's offices around the state so that they notify the database directly or through a phone tree or some other way if they want help. It looked like the message board was successfully used to notify the group of the missing people on the Hailstone. I only knew of the search through TV and newspaper reports and could see from the TV coverage that there was swift water at the site. What notification method do you recommend if an ACC member finds out about a search being conducted for someone missing in a swift water situation? Is the ACC going to limit its assistance to places we regularly paddle?

Mike Coogan

alias Captain Aleve

[CAPTAIN ALEVE]

President Burroughs emailed me back, describing a clear and intelligent approach to rescue work:

Mike,

The database is still under development, and is separate from the ACC for numerous legal reasons. Everyone who has sent their info in so far understands that we are not a rescue team, nor can we ever represent ourselves as one.

I will be working with regional emergency management coordinators to let those responsible for conducting the searches know of our availability as soon as we have enough folks available to be able to guarantee a realistic number of responders. Right now we do not have enough. It takes at least 30 to reasonably expect 5 folks available at any given time. The fact that many paddlers are out boating during high water events makes getting a group together even more challenging. The solution is in having a LOT of folks involved.

As for how we will organize callouts, I will decide that once we have enough folks. The message board is definitely not how it will be done. In the hailstone incident it was only by shear luck and coincidence that we even found out. I was out hunting creeks, and the person with me was coordinating meeting up with a shuttle and in casual conversation, the person on the other end of the line happened to mention that there was a search in progress. We lost almost 3 hours due to this. When the group is big enough, there will be a standardized procedure, right now though, the list is just of people who are interested in being involved and there is not a set procedure, since we are not "mission ready".

As I mentioned, the legalities involved are huge, which is why this group has to be separate from the ACC. Engendered reliance is the biggest problem. As time passes, we will get this ironed out, but at the moment, this is all still in the beginning stages. What we will be though is a group of paddlers available to help out the responsible agency, many of whom are also members of the ACC.

As for the post you put up, it is important to realize that the ACC does not do rescue work. If we represent ourselves as such it is a surefire guarantee that we will never be involved in another search/rescue. To maintain credibility, we will offer our services (once we are ready to do so, which right now we are not) as water support to the agencies responsible for facilitating the rescue, but that will be all.

This entire project began after so many folks wanted (and many did) to help after Albert Pike. For this to work in today's world of redtape and legal risks we are having to move carefully. To date I have been able to get preliminary approval for this to be a resource. Luckily I am directly involved and work with the folks who have the final say on who gets called and right now there is positive interest in a paddler resource group.

I hope this helps answer your questions,

Best Regards,

Tom


Captain Aleve, alias Mike Coogan