Saturday night was “probably the busiest SAR night I can remember” said Kent Harrison Search and Rescue Manager Neil Brewer.
They took three calls over night, two of them consecutive. It started at 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8 with a call to a landslide at Bridal Falls. Fears were that the slide would impact some dwellings and two RV parks. Kent Harrison SAR’s command vehicle was perfect to manage the situation from. With extensive mapping, internet and comms, the Unified Command set up worked well. When it became apparent that the slide was unlikely to impact any residents in the short-term and evacuation was unnecessary, SAR began to demobilize.
That’s when call number two came in. RCMP had received reports of someone trapped on a cliff near Chehalis Lake. Some campers who were out on the lake in a small boat heard shouts for help. KHSAR responded with a plan to launch a 12′ boat at the SE end of the lake to determine the location of the subject, then have another crew respond to the site.
As KHSAR was heading back to Agassiz to re-group and re-equip, call number three came in. RCMP had received a report regarding four persons lost in the Chehalis delta, near the fish hatchery. KHSAR requested help from Chilliwack SAR and handed the search off to them.
While en route to the Chehalis forest service road, KHSAR came across the subject’s parents who had found his car parked on the logging road at the 29 km mark. They had voice contact with him up the cliff, but were unable to assist. The boat portion of the response was therefore eliminated and the crew proceeded directly to the site.
The single male subject was rescued off the cliff from above and assisted down to the road. The crew left the scene just after midnight, but were requested to assist Chilliwack SAR at the Chehalis delta search as one of the four subjects needed to be stretchered out. SAR volunteers got home at 3:30 a.m.
“Great response by all the SAR volunteers from Kent Harrison and Chilliwack,” Brewer said.
