IMT set up at Hukuai Hall; Fee & Justin – intelligence.
BY FEE MURPHY, KSAR
Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 August saw a group of nearly 40 Search & Rescue volunteers converge on the Hikuai Community Hall for a Search & Rescue training weekend.
The exercise was organised by Dean, the Chairman of Kuaotunu Search & Rescue (KSAR) and involved search volunteers from Tairua, Pauanui & Whangamata (TPW), Waihi, Thames, Waikato Police and the Amateur Radio Emergency Communications (AREC). Shannon, from KSAR and her dog, Tiny were the Lost Party (LP).
The Incident Management Team (IMT) started at the Hikuai Hall on Saturday at 9.00am and the Field search teams turned up at 10.00am and were immediately deployed into the field to start searching for our LP.
The IMT is divided into several groups to manage the search. The Police controlled the whole operation, with the following teams: – Intelligence, Planning, Operations, Communication, Logistics, SARtrack (IT mapping specialists).
While the Planning and Operations teams familiarised themselves with the search area the Intelligence and Police were involved with interviewing family and friends of the LP. The idea is to find out as much as possible about the LP so we can assess the likelihood of her whereabouts. For example, our LP was very fit, part of KSAR herself and had very good bushcraft and knew the area very well. However, she was only equipped for a day walk so had limited warm clothing. It was generally agreed that she had probably injured herself and that was why she had not returned from her tramp.
Once this information was obtained, Planning and Operations could determine various areas to search and tasked the Field teams accordingly.
The field teams were dropped off at the search area and applied various search techniques and tracking skills to locate our LP, communicating back to the IMT when they found anything that might be a clue to where she might be. Slowly a picture builds and search areas are identified and then disregarded to gradually draw in the “net” and find our LP.
Unfortunately, we did not find Shannon on the first day, so she had a cold night out (not really, she was at home!) But the rest of us camped out after a good feed, ready to resume searching the next day.
Luckily, Shannon was found by mid-morning with a broken ankle (fake) and was stretchered out by the field teams.
All in all, a very successful exercise that brought the participating Search & Rescue groups closer together.
