As volunteer members of the Sonoma County
Search & Rescue team, we are on call 24 hours a day to respond to look for people lost
in our local wilderness areas, surrounding urban areas, and the suburban boundary areas
that back up to open rural space that is so prevalent in Sonoma County.
The first calls for assistance come in from the sworn officers
on the Sonoma Sheriff's staff directly to the SAR coordinator, in our case the Deputy
responsible for the SAR team.
 Our
current pre-plan calls for extensive investigations to be performed, an area fly-over
by "Henry-1", our Bell
407 helicopter equipped with a state-of-the-art Forward Looking Infra Red [FLIR]
camera. Our overhead team is paged out to assist in determination of resources
needed and urgency factors which may dictate the activation of additional agency
assistance.
Should search efforts escalate and resources be required,
a request for our team is paged out and we respond to local staging areas capable
of handling all our logistical needs. The call out could be anywhere from 2 minutes
to 2 hours after initial investigations are underway, all depending upon factors
such as the terrain and the lost person profile.
 To
facilitate a search effort consisting of many teams, we utilize our mobile command
trailer as a base of operations. The trailer is fully self-contained and serves as
a location to conduct operations — around the clock if necessary. |
Our team members arrive ready to go in the
field, utilizing skills learned during team trainings such as man
tracking and land
navigation with extensive map and compass work.
When we come to a
search, we are all prepared to be there anywhere from 3 hours to 3 days [off
and on depending upon the requisite sleep period]. It can be exhausting work,
and we don't get paid for our efforts.
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We are responsible for our
own gear and own transportation to and from search events. |
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We spend many weekends each year
training and preparing ourselves. |
Why do we put ourselves through this...? One reason
only.
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The data from this graph was presented in 2003 as a way to better understand the risks
associated with spending resources on locating lost subjects versus "doing nothing".
While one could incorrectly draw the conclusion that people will more often be found
without the help of search and rescue resources, 45% of the lost subject population
still need outside assistance. As well, the top 20% are those who have NOT
been found and are subsequently are the greatest risks.
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