Frustrating search

[Wyofirediver]

It's been a couple months since I posted on the boards. This past weekend we had a couple kids that decided they didn't need to wear PFD's and proceded to swamp their canoe on the reservoir in 40-45 mph winds. Long story short one made it to the shore the other will never get a day older. We got our initial call somewhere around 2 hours after he had gone down. As it was already dark, and there wasn't much of a location to go on, we couldn't put a team in the water until the following morning. As we are all volunteers we can only look for a limited amount of time, and I could only get guys for 2 days. Over those 2 days each of my guys logged a total of 6 hours down. The depth was only 8-10 feet, but the viz was basically zero, you could see shadows about 3 inches off your mask. The general conditions really limited what we could do. The second day we got a few drops in and had to call it as the weather was making conditions too hazardous. The following day a side scan sonar unit was able to be brought in and they located the victim less that 5 feet from where I had made a pass the first day. The drop we were getting ready to make when we called it off was going to start our swath about 75 feet away and was going to take us right over the top of him again. We have got to find funding for that type of equipment somehow.

 

[tc]

Our side scan has made a huge difference in the way we run a lot of our operations.

We have a more expensive marine sonic unit- 40K or so, but I've been hearing the lower end units in the 4K range have been getting decent results.

Do some presentations to some of the service organizations (Kiwanis, (sp?) lions, etc) and see if you can get their help in a fund raising drive. If you have more than one team in the area (and get along with the others) maybe you could work on getting a unit for the region.

Good luck!

Tom

 

[Wyofirediver]

The sheriff is already looking into forming a multi county group basicaly trying to get some support from the surrounding counties as our divers are the the primary call for at least two of the adjoining counties. on of the other counties has a group of divers that are for the most part an automatic mutual aid for any calls in either of our counties. I'm supposed to meet with him in the next couple of weeks to talk about persuing this as an option. I was recently promoted to being second in command for our divers, and had command of the first diving scene since that took place. Evidently I made a good impression.

 

[tc]

Sounds like you're already on the right track.

 

[tbone5587]

About 2 years ago, we formed a mutual aid dive team which pretty much covers all of Northern Lower Michigan. We are divided into 3 teams and have been able to purchase 3 side scan units which are kept centrally.

We are the smallest county in Michigan, so we were pretty happy to get on board with this and be able to be in the running for some of the funding that is available to the larger counties here.

If you want, I can try and get a copy of our mutual aid agreement from the Sheriff. Let me know...

 

[Gary D.]

All’s well that ends well. Good job and kudos to your team.

Our initial SS plan was to get all the surrounding counties in three states to donate funds to get it going. That would have made the SS and the team available to cover an area basically from Ellensburg Washington on the west, east of Missoula Montana and from the Canadian border of Idaho to the midline of the state. Almost everyone committed to the plan until it came time to write the checks. We ended up doing it on our own and now we are working on funds for the ROV.

The nice part is that the dive team is in-house so deployment is not an issue as with volunteer teams. The SS team is a mix of in-house and volunteers but that is even a different set up. Three of us are dive team members; two are seasonal Marine Deputies and a couple out of patrol.

Now you’re asking yourself where the volunteers are. One of the seasonal guys started out as a volunteer. Once the summer is over he will return to volunteer status. At the start of the program we had other volunteers but like anything else they aren’t that committed and fade into the woodwork.

I just saw a blurb on the news that Lacey Washington has a big one going right now. Sounds like it could be a multiple homicide with victims still missing.

Let’s send some prayers their way for a safe and successful operation.

Gary

 

[grumpie]

Not offended.
I started diving for Hennepin co. sheriffs office in 1960. In 1986 I became a Dive master for them. In 1993 I became their Instrutor and still there.
I find that the life time for a PSD is about 6 or 7 years and I think part of it is due to the constine training. We train two times a month all year around. If we have a call out or not. Thats 16 hrs a month,our bosses think that it important ( you never know when a bridge will fall down) The dive team is made up of paid people and volunteers. There nevers is Im paid and your free we all work together and get the job done. These are the greats people in the world. We can do 15-20 recovers a year.
grumpie..... PS Im a volunteer and damn proud of it.
850 hrs last year.

 

[horsediver1]

Grumpie It must be our MN attitude, my whole team is volunteer same thing year round no pay, cop teacher doctor paramedic banker nobody accepts pay. They look at it as a privilege!! My suggestion to Wyofirediver is start with an application for a 501(c)3 status with the IRS. This opens up funding from the United Way, misc service organizations and fund raisers, and raffle sales. Also another avenue for funding is lake associations, I then would go to your local government agencies for a small budgetary amount to be allocated annually for update and maintenance.

Good Luck and only the best for you

TG

 

[STEVE SALACH]

Side Scan Sonars are a great addition to dive teams but they are expensive. If anyone is in need of a side scan sonar unit for a search, contact the International Association of DIve Rescue Specialists (IADRS) they have a network of teams around the country that have units and will travel to help.

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

Side Scan for our team is a blessing but at the same time I think we rely to much on the unit. Usually the SAR guys tow the fish for hrs or even days before a diver gets in the water and even then I dont think we have had a successful hit since they got the unit. We also have multiple Hummingbird units with similar results. The problems here are the lakes usually are jam packed with weeds, logs, large boulders, or even sunken forests of trees making sonar opps difficult. combine that with lakes and rivers with drastic topography changes and no last seen point and you have a pretty rough time finding anything. We have upcoming training for use of the sidescan units to locate a dummy but generally those training missions are conducted in favorable weather and better than average viz. I dont make the calls but it seems like the sonar is a crutch that we rely to heavily on.

BTW we are entirely volunteer as is the SAR team and although members numbers are low most of the members on the team stay for years and several have been there since the teams creation 11 years ago. Funding is the biggest issue and our tie to the sheriffs dept makes us not able to receive 503(C) donations. Our budget for each team is $5k annually which barely covers maintenance. To bad there isn't the funding for dive teams that there is for fire depts and boarder patrol but homeland security has their priorities.