Recent incident highlights work of search and rescue
Three men walk out from desert Monday
By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Friday, January 2, 2009 8:29 AM PST
Vale — The return of three local men from a hunting trip highlights the work of the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue team, even though, as one official put it, the men “rescued themselves.”
The three men, ranging in age from 35 to around 47, all from the Vale and Ontario area, were hunting in the Watson area, near the head of Lake Owyhee. When the three did not return Sunday night, family members began to worry, and the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office was notified. The three were delayed after they encountered vehicle troubles, according to the sheriff’s office.
“We put a plane in the air, looked for them, didn’t find them,” Malheur County Undersheriff Brian Wolfe said.
Wolfe said the three were able to travel to another camp and asked for a ride into town. Once there, they called their family members, who quickly notified the sheriff’s office to call off the search. Wolfe said the sheriff’s office learned of the new development at around 1 p.m. Monday.
“We were getting a search team together but they were already rescued,” Wolfe said.
Wolfe said the Malheur County Sheriff’s Office normally sees about three to four search and rescue cases a month during hunting season, which lasts from September to January. However, he said this case was the first one sheriff’s deputies have responded to all year. Wolfe said he believed the decrease is because hunters come to the Malheur County-area to hunt chukars, which have had lower numbers this year.
Wolfe spoke highly of the three hunters, since they brought enough food and had the proper clothing for cold conditions. Wolfe also recommends bringing extra water and materials to make a fire if needed.
Wolfe said funding for the plane fuel and oil used in the search will be refunded by the Oregon Office of Emergency Management, which reimburses direct costs through its search and rescue program. However, the time sheriff’s deputies spend on the scene remains taxpayer funded.
“It was a little bit of time,” Wolfe said. However, he said, that time and subsequent cost can vary when the search party is increased to 50 to 100 people. Wolfe said, while the sheriff’s office has not conducted searches of that size this year, it has in previous years. The increased cost, he said, comes from feeding and housing the search and rescue team.
“When you have 50 to 100 people, you start running into big costs,” he said.
Around 150 rescue workers, including ranchers and private citizens, turned out in 2006 to search for a missing Caldwell toddler in the Malheur County desert. Several agencies, including Harney County Search and Rescue, Baker County Search and Rescue, the United States Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Police, Canyon County Sheriff's Office and Malheur County Community Corrections, helped in the search. There were also two fixed-wing aircraft involved in the search, and two helicopters, one owned by a member of the county search and rescue team and one from the Idaho Army National Guard. Bryce Hinton, then 2, was lost for more than 15 hours near Mud Flat, about 75 miles southwest of Vale, near the McNaulty Reservoir. He spent the June night wearing only a T-shirt, pants and tennis shoes in temperatures that dipped down into the mid-30s. The Hinton family reported him missing after he walked away from his grandmother and two others during an outing.
At the time, Wolfe said the cost of the search might cost $40,000 for the 15-hour operation.
“Fortunately we don’t have to come up with that much money. Like with BLM, they had probably 65 or 70 people there. They just absorb that,” Wolfe said at the time. “The state police doesn’t send us a bill for the people that came from them. The volunteers don't send us a bill. Realistically, we will probably have, out of our budget, $1,000 out of it.”
