GJC
Contributor
Short helicopter medevacs would be between 500 to 1500 feet above ground. Longer trips could be up to 2500 feet, but if the patient was possibly DCS or AGE the pilot would fly closer to the ground, lower than 500 feet.
Search & Recovery diver dead - Fort Hood, Texas
- Thread starter DandyDon
- Start date
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Condolences to the family and teammates. Something like this really hits home.
tdtnews.com
‘Freak accident’ pulled diver into underwater hole during search
BY CODY WEEMS AND JACOB SANCHEZ | TELEGRAM STAFF
Posted: Monday, April 17, 2017 8:41 pm | Updated: 8:48 pm, Mon Apr 17, 2017.
‘Freak accident’ pulled diver into underwater hole during search tdtnews.com
A Belton diver suffered fatal injuries when she was pulled into an underwater hole during a missing person search at Fort Hood, Bell County officials said Monday.
Authorities are still investigating the death of Lori Pohanka-Kalama, a Morgan’s Point Resort Dive Team member who aided the Fort Hood search on Saturday. The 46-year-old died Sunday morning at Scott & White Medical Center-Temple.
Officials at Fort Hood and the Morgan’s Point Resort Police Department are conducting separate, but ongoing investigations.
Bell County Emergency Management Coordinator Michael Harmon said Pohanka-Kalama was pulled into the underwater hole and remained trapped at the bottom of a low-water dam on House Creek near Turkey Run Road. Air remained inside Pohanka-Kalama’s tank when she was removed from the water, Harmon said.
“It was a freak accident,” Harmon said at a Monday workshop of the Bell County Commissioners Court. “There was some deficit at the bottom of the dam where water was flowing through. The vacuum of the water is what pulled her into a hole.”
Harmon said fellow divers were able to get a rope around Pohanka-Kalama and pull her out after about a 15-minute effort. She was transported to Carl R. Darnall Medical Center on Fort Hood and then to Scott & White Medical Center-Temple, where she died Sunday morning.
Bell County Commissioner John Fisher said it was fortunate no one else was harmed.
“If it happened to her, then it’s lucky that it didn’t happen to somebody else trying to retrieve her,” Fisher said.
Pohanka-Kalama worked professionally as a speech pathologist. She worked for the Killeen Independent School District from 2012-2013, KISD spokesman Shannon Rideout said.
“It’s just terrible,” County Judge Jon Burrows said. “Terrible.”
The Morgan’s Point Resort Dive Team consists of about 22 members. The city’s Police Chief Fred Churchill said Monday that Pohanka-Kalama had been a member of the dive team for about two years.
He said the team is one of the only agencies in the area qualified to conduct water searches.
“There were some areas that needed to be searched and the only way to search them was by diver because of the depth of the water,” he said. “Nobody else in the area has the training, equipment or skill set to go into those areas and do recovery diving.”
Hours after Pohanka-Kalama’s death, the dive team went back out to help, Churchill said. The team went to Temple Lake Park Sunday afternoon to recover the body of a Fort Hood soldier who drowned at Lake Belton.
Services for Pohanka-Kalama are pending. Harper-Talasek Funeral Home in Temple is handling arrangements.
cweems@tdtnews.com
jsanchez@tdtnews.com
‘Freak accident’ pulled diver into underwater hole during search
BY CODY WEEMS AND JACOB SANCHEZ | TELEGRAM STAFF
Posted: Monday, April 17, 2017 8:41 pm | Updated: 8:48 pm, Mon Apr 17, 2017.
‘Freak accident’ pulled diver into underwater hole during search tdtnews.com
A Belton diver suffered fatal injuries when she was pulled into an underwater hole during a missing person search at Fort Hood, Bell County officials said Monday.
Authorities are still investigating the death of Lori Pohanka-Kalama, a Morgan’s Point Resort Dive Team member who aided the Fort Hood search on Saturday. The 46-year-old died Sunday morning at Scott & White Medical Center-Temple.
Officials at Fort Hood and the Morgan’s Point Resort Police Department are conducting separate, but ongoing investigations.
Bell County Emergency Management Coordinator Michael Harmon said Pohanka-Kalama was pulled into the underwater hole and remained trapped at the bottom of a low-water dam on House Creek near Turkey Run Road. Air remained inside Pohanka-Kalama’s tank when she was removed from the water, Harmon said.
“It was a freak accident,” Harmon said at a Monday workshop of the Bell County Commissioners Court. “There was some deficit at the bottom of the dam where water was flowing through. The vacuum of the water is what pulled her into a hole.”
Harmon said fellow divers were able to get a rope around Pohanka-Kalama and pull her out after about a 15-minute effort. She was transported to Carl R. Darnall Medical Center on Fort Hood and then to Scott & White Medical Center-Temple, where she died Sunday morning.
Bell County Commissioner John Fisher said it was fortunate no one else was harmed.
“If it happened to her, then it’s lucky that it didn’t happen to somebody else trying to retrieve her,” Fisher said.
Pohanka-Kalama worked professionally as a speech pathologist. She worked for the Killeen Independent School District from 2012-2013, KISD spokesman Shannon Rideout said.
“It’s just terrible,” County Judge Jon Burrows said. “Terrible.”
The Morgan’s Point Resort Dive Team consists of about 22 members. The city’s Police Chief Fred Churchill said Monday that Pohanka-Kalama had been a member of the dive team for about two years.
He said the team is one of the only agencies in the area qualified to conduct water searches.
“There were some areas that needed to be searched and the only way to search them was by diver because of the depth of the water,” he said. “Nobody else in the area has the training, equipment or skill set to go into those areas and do recovery diving.”
Hours after Pohanka-Kalama’s death, the dive team went back out to help, Churchill said. The team went to Temple Lake Park Sunday afternoon to recover the body of a Fort Hood soldier who drowned at Lake Belton.
Services for Pohanka-Kalama are pending. Harper-Talasek Funeral Home in Temple is handling arrangements.
cweems@tdtnews.com
jsanchez@tdtnews.com
delta-p. Very dangerous.
wgw04024
Contributor
Man I've read a number of these kinds of cases. I will never go near a damn or outlets for reservoirs....ugh.
R
redacted
Guest
House Creek, where the accident occurred is normally quite shallow. Even in the flooded conditions, unlikely even 10 ft and more likely less than 5 ft.
I do not know the location of the incident but there is a small lake on the creek that does involve a dam. There may also be low water crossings which could also involve culverts.
I do not know the location of the incident but there is a small lake on the creek that does involve a dam. There may also be low water crossings which could also involve culverts.
Last edited by a moderator:
That is a tough environment to work in and an awful thing for a dive team to have to deal with. Kudos to those who went in after Lori.
Re airlifting: it's been touched on before, but unpressurized aircraft transporting injured divers should stay below 1000' MSL, which can be difficult to do. We rarely use aircraft to bring injured divers from the coast and we're 2 1/2 to 5-ish hours away from that depending on location. They're almost always transported via ground. The only exception is if the injury occurred offshore and a military aircraft picks the diver directly from the boat.
Best regards,
DDM
Re airlifting: it's been touched on before, but unpressurized aircraft transporting injured divers should stay below 1000' MSL, which can be difficult to do. We rarely use aircraft to bring injured divers from the coast and we're 2 1/2 to 5-ish hours away from that depending on location. They're almost always transported via ground. The only exception is if the injury occurred offshore and a military aircraft picks the diver directly from the boat.
Best regards,
DDM
2airishuman
Contributor
Well done to the brothers and sisters of the Twin Cities.
A low altitude helicopter flight (<2500') is going to be less than three fsw equivalent drop in pressure.
A typical 8000 foot cabin altitude for an aircraft flying near 35000' equates to about 8.5 fsw drop in pressure.
A typical 8000 foot cabin altitude for an aircraft flying near 35000' equates to about 8.5 fsw drop in pressure.
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