Poor Weather for Search and Rescue

TRAINING EXERCISE AT AMHERST SHORE PARK

Emergencies rarely fall on warm, sunny days, and for the volunteers of Cumberland’s Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) neither do their training events.

Searcher teams from Springhill and Pugwash descended on the Amherst Shore Provincial Park this morning for hands on training.

The mock exercise involved a search for a father and son, lost in the woods. The son was a special needs boy who wore a Project Lifesaver transmitter bracelet, designed for just such an emergency. Meanwhile, the distraught father became lost while looking for his son.

Search and Rescue associations are often equipped with the “Project Lifesaver”, a special antenna device that allows searchers to listen for a ping from the transmitting bracelet. 

The President of Pugwash Ground Search and Rescue demonstrated the receiver prior to the start of the exercise. In the attached photo, Amy Tizzard shows you just hold out the antenna as you walk around the search scene, listening for a transmission.

Tizzard, a Lands and Forestry geologist who leads part of the safety effort at the Oxford sinkhole, was the search leader for today’s event.

There were nearly forty people in the training event, a number Tizzard says would be expected at a real emergency scene. She noted that the two GSAR teams, Springhill and Pugwash, serve all of Cumberland County, often working together in times of need.

This morning’s training exercise involved a few different kinds of searches, including grid searching and the Project Lifesaver search.

The early morning rain did not seem to dampen any spirits and the brightly coloured safety gear added a touch of excitement as the drab park began to wake from a long winter’s sleep.

In the photos below, Amy Tizzard sets up the scenario for the entire exercise. She then directs a small team on what to expect.

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