Flash flood re-search
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Aug 4, 1984 |
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By Kevin Walker
At the request of the Indio station of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, RMRU responded back to the Piņon Fire Station. The plan was to carefully re-search the area we had looked in one week previously for a woman that was swept away by flash flood waters on July 27 (see July issue - Mission No. 1984-018).
Members met at 6.00 a.m., and being
that we were going out on what would normally be
a training weekend, we had a great turnout with
the following members present. Walt Walker, John
Dew, Bernie McIlvoy, and his brother Dave, Rick
Pohlers, Rob Gardner, Mel Krug, Ray Hussey, Jim
Fairchild, Bill Blaschko, Bud White, Randy
Iwasiuk, Don Ricker, Larry Roland, Jim Garvey and
myself. Upon Don Landells arrival, we were flown
in groups of four with our packs to a ridge near
where the woman was last seen. Once all members
were in, we set out in two groups, one lead by
Rick Pohlers, and a smaller group with me to do a
sweep behind the first group. As we started down
Walt and Don flew in containers of water to
various locations in the tributary and in Deep
Canyon. Even though water was running, it was
still murky from the previous weeks' rains. Both
groups moved along slowly, poking and digging
anywhere a body might lodge. Progress was slow as
we planned to spend the entire weekend searching.
Much farther down Deep Canyon, Bernie and his brother had been set out to search the narrow part of Deep Canyon where the largest pools were to be found.
At 11:15 Rick came on the air and
notified base that his group had located the
body, and that the Coroner should be called. Our
group was about a quarter mile behind Rick's, so
it did not take long to make it past the few
small to medium cascade type waterfalls and walk
on down to where the first group waited. As Rob
and I rounded a bend in the little canyon just
ahead of the rest of our group, we saw the entire
first group about 75 feet above the canyon floor.
We wondered why they would want to be out in the
hot sun instead of down in the shade. We found
out as we approached the site. Because of a most
unpleasant odor, we quickly joined them.
As we waited, Don Landells was re-contacted and flew back to Piņon. It was about a two hour wait as the coroner was responding from somewhere in the desert area. Once he did arrive, he, Walt and a Piņon fireman were flown in with extrication equipment. To be brief, it was a very distasteful job removing the body out from under several large boulders in the center of the canyon floor. The body would have not been found in the first place if it were not for the odor. Thanks to the expertise of the firefighter and the stamina of several RMRU members, the body was extricated and bagged, then flown out in the cargo net. At 3:00 the last group was flown out. No major casualties were reported other than every member present had literally been eaten alive by some type of insect in the area, some worse than others. With the mission complete, we went down to the desert, had lunch, and then went over to a team member's girl friend's house for a most enjoyable cool swim.