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msar-riders - [MSAR] Brief mission yesterday

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  • From: Una Smith <una.smith@att.net>
  • To: msar-riders@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [MSAR] Brief mission yesterday
  • Date: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 09:30:14 -0600

I worked extended dispatch from home, starting at 02:40 AM. Extended
dispatch means I called SAR teams to activate them and give them an
initial briefing and directions, called the forest service to notify
them of a SAR mission in their jurisdiction, and stayed by the phone.

On Sunday the subjects drove on a very poor dirt road 30 miles into
a national forest to pick mushrooms. New Mexico is in severe drought
all over the state and mushrooms grow only when and where there has
been rain. Rain in New Mexico equals severe mud. When they tried
to drive out their truck got stuck and/or broke down. Cell service
was very poor. They hiked to a ridge to call a tow truck (none came)
then after midnight they called 911. They had children with them
and were not equipped to stay overnight (much less days) out in the
forest. Normal night time temperatures are in the low 50's F and a
system of severe thunderstorms has been passing across the state.

All we did was send in a few SAR volunteers to give them a ride out,
plus some planning and calling some additional resources just in case
the situation got worse. That has been known to happen.

The location was near the Colorado border so I was also looking at
activating SAR resources from Colorado and seeking information about
the current condition of the "road" into this forest from the other
side.

Communications used a combination of text messaging for low priority
information and verbal relay by telephone and radio for the higher
priority stuff.

Una Smith
New Mexico




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