No need for alarm: ground search and rescue crews prepare for worst-case scenarios
Exercise simulated camping trip gone wrong, campers missing
Thirty volunteers with P.E.I.'s Ground Search and Rescue spent the day looking for actors who were pretending to be lost in the woods and rivers around Eastern P.E.I Sunday.
It was part of a training exercise to hone their skills. There were props set out along the Montague River between Knox's Dam and Brudenell Point and teams used boats to look for the pretend victims.
Though the volunteer crews do classroom training — nothing beats hands-on experience, said Devon Herring, logistics officer for the ground search team.
"It's important to maintain our skills," said Herring. "If you don't use your skills you will lose them over a period of time."
Several teams were sent out on foot and others were on the water around Montague and Brudenell.
The teams take these types of exercises very seriously. They set up a base camp and even practised first aid treatment on the actors.
The idea is to make it as life-like as possible, so that when the real thing happens, they'll be ready.
"The more you practice, the better you get, the more it becomes that automatic reaction," said Herring.
The P.E.I Ground Search and Rescue conducts exercises about three or four times a year.
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With files from Stephanie vanKampen