Search and rescue has gone high tech – somewhat anyway, as searchers are still needed on the ground.
Graham County Emergency Services Director Brian Stevens explained that a new program was recently used in a search for a lost hiker in Deep Creek.
The web-based program is called SAR TOPO, which stands for Search and Rescue Topography. The program was designed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and was originally used to map forest fires.
Once a cell phone number is entered into the program, the person carrying it can be tracked and their location shown on the computer. A person must request for their phone number to be entered into the system – as 41-year-old Atlanta resident James Clark did on Aug. 28, which helped immensely in searchers reaching the lost hiker.
The area Clark was lost in was covered in dense underbrush and the trail so overgrown that the hiker got lost.
Even the searchers had a problem in staying on the trail. Thanks to the program, Stevens was able to see the location of the hiker and the searchers and was able to guide them to him.
Stevens said the program – although very helpful – is not designed to replace searchers who can track people in the woods by their footprints and other signs they leave that are often unseen by people not familiar with being in the woods.