We got called out Monday to search for two missing mountain bikers who had been out all weekend and not returned as planned. The bikers were reported missing Sunday evening by family members. Local volunteers, law enforcement and Alabama State Trooper air assets were used in an attempt to located the subjects in a heavily forested area of the Bankhead National Forest. Ten members of RAT-SAR arrived on scene at approximately 1300 along with team members from Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office search team. After initial planning, three ground search hasty teams were dispatched to high-probability areas. At approximately 5 PM the missing subjects were located alive and well by searchers driving a perimeter road. The subjects were tired and hungry but otherwise in good physical condition. So, just know if you're going to get out and hike or adventure in the outdoors, you're putting everyone at risk if you need search and rescue. It's almost impossible to properly search and hike with an N95 mask on.
Arc Teryx. Bought through a pro deal with NC emergency management. Best rain shell ever. Well worth the dollars.
RAT crew easily distinguishable by the chest rigs. Once the rest of the SAR ground teams move to those, you will have to return to backpacks. Good work by all.
Jeff, any tips on how y'all were able to get integrated with your local LE agency? I work for a rather rural county sheriff's office and I think a SAR team is something we should be looking into implementing. Any bullet points you can give me to take to the sheriff would be most appreciated.
Well done. This is the other side of the double edged sword of "well my activity of choice IS built upon social distancing". That's all well and good, until you have an emergency of any kind. Whether hiking, camping, fishing from a boat or kayak, etc. People should be keeping that in mind, and mitigating risk as best they can. ETA: don't want this coming off the wrong way...people should definitely get out and do things just like what I've mentioned above. They should be going above and beyond to make sure they're doing it safely though, IMO....
Have you contacted the Virginia Search and Rescue Council? That would be a good place to start. States sometimes do things a little differently from each other, so if you have a state SAR council (and you do), then I would reach out to them and let them know what you want to do and they can provide the legal aspects, training standards, etc. Wish I could be more help but it just depends on the state you're working in. But if you have a willing sheriff then it makes implementing a SAR team a lot better.