ROCKINGHAM — More than 200 search and rescue personnel from across North Carolina will be roaming around the southern river hills near the Pee Dee River this weekend for the RockSAR 2022 Exercise.
The training, which includes groups and individuals from the mountains to the coast, is being funded by an $84,000 grant from N.C. Emergency Management, according to county Emergency Services Director Bob Smith.
Running the exercise at the Diggs Tract is Scott Brooks of Chatham County-based Crisis Tech.
Brooks said that about 210 people have registered for the three-day training event.
“Some of them are with search teams, and a lot of them are what’s called single resources,” Brooks said. “They’re coming here and we will join them up with other teams and we will send them out on search missions.”
“This is a big training evolution for new people who have new certifications so that they can experience searching,” he added.
Brooks said the Incident Management Team was supposed to be set up in a 60-acre field about halfway into the area, but recent rains left them lining up along the side of the road.
“Everything’s a little packed in … but that’s real life. We go places like that all the time,” Brooks said. “You can’t control Mother Nature.”
Those working the incident management side are mapping and deciding where to send the searchers from a mobile command center.
“There’s a lot of moving parts going on,” Brooks said.
Searchers include K-9 teams, drone teams and a few on horseback, working along with “ground-pounders.”
Ellerbe-based search and rescue group Pineland Resources is also helping with the exercise.
The training includes several break-out sessions, including an informative talk on children with autism from Meghann Lambeth, leader of the Richmond County Chapter of the Autism Society of North Carolina. Lambeth, whose son is on the autism spectrum, is also the county tourism director.
On the schedule for Saturday evening is the N.C. SAR Advisory Council
“We’re trying to do a lot of things at one time,” Brooks said. “When you get all this many people here, you’ve got to kinda do everything you can.”
This is the first large-scale training event since the COVID pandemic started two years ago, according to Brooks.
‘People are really looking forward to getting back into the woods … and doing additional training,” he said.
The Diggs Tract is more than 1,600 acres of hilly terrain several miles south of Cordova.
Brooks described the terrain as “interesting,” adding that there are “really big embankments” and, because of Wednesday’s rain, swampy areas and creeks that are usually easier to cross but are currently “raging waters” that make the situation more difficult.
Because it’s “in the middle of nowhere,” Brooks said they’ve had to bring in bathroom and shower trailers and generators and have food brought in for the participants.
“It’s a huge undertaking from a logistics standpoint,” Brooks said, adding that organizers began planning the exercise in June of 2021. “But honestly, this could be a real scenario.”
SEARCH SCENARIO
Those participating in the weekend event will be looking for “victims” from a church group who are kayaking from Hitchcock Creek to the river and camping at the tract.
In the scenario, Brooks said, the group gets separated due to high water and stormy conditions: “Some are injured, they capsize, some are hypothermic.”
Three of the “victims” are real people and seven are mannequins, according to Brooks.
“A pretty realistic scenario, as far as I’m concerned,” Brooks said.
If the teams complete their mission too soon, Brooks said the scenario can be manipulated by moving the live victims to another location.
PICKING THE LOCATION
There have been several search and rescue training missions held at Millstone 4-H Camp in Ellerbe in the past.
But, Brooks said Smith wanted the challenge of setting everything up and to demonstrate the tools and capabilities that can be brought into a real-life situation.
“It makes it a big logistical challenge, but it’s been good,” Brooks said.
The exercise will continue through Sunday.
