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Nisqually River Search, Mission Report by Fran Martoglio On Friday evening, Sept 10th, we were paged by DEM to respond to a body recovery for a missing fisherman on the Nisqually River. The victim had been fishing in waders and while crossing the river slipped. His waders filled with water and carried him downstream and underwater. We were asked to report at 8am Saturday morning with 8-10 people for possible highline/tethered boat operations. Knowing that highline operations combined with swiftwater operations can take a lot of people to manage, I asked Gus to have as many members as possible respond. Our annual helicopter training was scheduled for that day, so we had many members able to respond. A list at the end of this report contains the names of those responding. Myself and Jeff Sharp arrived at 7:30am at Frank’s Landing boat launch and the TMR truck arrived soon after. Within the hour we had over 20 members at SAR base. PCSD Deputy Doug Pressel was the IC. He showed us the PLS and where they wanted to conduct the search. The PCSD Dive Team would have 1 diver in the water with a connection line and communication line to the boat. He would be on 3-way com with the Safety Diver and Backup Diver in the boat. We would have one of our members in the boat directing the movement of the boat on the river from the highline. The highline would be stretched across the river about 20 yards above the search area. This tethered boat/highline operation would allow the boat to move across the river in a grid pattern and also move up and down the river as the dive team requested. This type of dive rescue is high risk as the diver is working in zero visibility and much debris is in the river. Our team took the mission seriously and went to work. For this mission, Jeff Sharp was the Rigger and Alan Givotovsky was the initial Safety. Two members who are Swiftwater certified were sent downstream with throwbags as safeties. I sent a “far side” team led by Rick Wire and consisting of Tyler Severy, Tod Lokey and Ken Davies across the river by boat. The ropes went with them and they set up their side of the track line and the far-side tag line quickly. On the “control side”, the track line and control-side tag line were anchored and a tether line to control the upstream and downstream movement of the boat was added. By the time the divers were ready, our systems were ready to go. Chris Berryman went with the divers in the boat to direct its movement. Jeff and Tim Greminger made the control calls on the operation. It became obvious that more highlines would need to be established as we searched downstream. I assigned a second team to work with Jeff and setup another highline beyond the current search area. As one search finished, the boat was readied with another diver and the second search area started. This continued through 3 revolutions with a fourth highline already to go. On the third search area, the victim was located. This mission required our members to work technical rope systems within a swiftwater environment combined with a high-risk situation for the divers. Our team performed professionally and stayed focused and on-task for hours. Jeff Sharp did an excellent job of managing the rigging with great assistance from Tim Greminger. Rick Wire ably led the far-side team and I knew we could count on their safe and efficient rigging. Chris Berryman and Alan Givotovsky both worked the demanding job of directing the movement from the boat. All of our members, worked very hard and very well. At the debrief, Sheriff Paul Pastor thanked our team and the other groups involved (NW Disaster Dogs and German Shepard Search Dogs). Jeff had stated that in his 24 years on the team and countless missions he had never used a highline on a mission. But, today he and our team setup 4. Our extensive rigging training combined with our swiftwater capabilities led to a successful mission. Respectfully submitted, Fran Martoglio Operations Leader |
