Last evening, myself and 8 of my fellow Central Oklahoma REACT members took part in the search and rescue efforts, trying to locate the missing 3 year-old boy from Piedmont. I arrived at the command post at 17:00 and checked in. Some of our team had already been there all day searching for the boy, while others of us arrived in the afternoon to relieve them. While we waited for our assignments, four of us were able to drive to ground zero (where the tornado destroyed the homes) and check the area out. The things I saw were unimaginable. I have never seen such devastation in my life. Homes were leveled and all kinds of debris was hanging in the trees. There were nice cars that had been reduced to junk and lots of debris in the lake. I had the opportunity to take some pictures, which I will post on Facebook later today.
After about 30 minutes at ground zero, another REACT member contacted me by radio and asked our group to return to the command post for further assignments. By the time I arrived at the command post, we had around 12 members of our REACT team ready to go out and do some search and rescue. The team members that had been there all day searching, were allowed to leave the scene and the rest of us stayed to receive our assignments. We broke up in two different teams of six and each team had a search and rescue dog (plus its handler). We started out searching on the north side of Waterloo Rd, which was directly across from ground zero. With the dogs in front of us, we searched every place…in and under trees, under debris, in the creek area and near the road. Then, they decided to reassign us to ground zero and start searching there.
By the time we started searching ground zero, it started getting dark. With the dog and handler in front of us, we all followed behind with our flashlights on. The dog was turned loose at every house and we watched as he carefully walked through the debris, searching for any type of scent. Once he finished his initial search, we came in behind him and went through the debris ourselves. Any time the dog would give a signal that he possibly had something, we would flag the area as a an area of interest so it could be rechecked when it was daylight. It was very dark where we were at, so flashlights were all we had for light. It did become a challenge many times because of all the debris we were walking through. We were fortunate nobody got hurt or stepped on a nail.
At one point, we went to the west shoreline and started checking out some large debris at the edge. The dog started hitting on something, so all of us on the team gathered around the debris and started looking. A couple of searchers actually got in the water and skimmed it with their hands to see what they could find, while others were on the shore moving debris around. We spent about thirty minutes at that one spot, searching for anything…but with the darkness and the murky water, we could not find anything. By the time we finished in the area, we had covered a whole block.
Finally, at around 10 pm, we were called by incident command and told we needed to wrap it up and report back to the command center. We weren’t ready to go…..we wanted to find the boy so bad. When we left, we had a feeling of failure. Our gut instincts were telling us that boy was in the water in the area we spent so much time looking. But, without good daylight and some heavy equipment, there was nothing we could do. The debris was a huge tree and trunk that could not be moved by a human. We left the area and arrived back at command at 10:30 pm. We were then released by incident command.
This morning, I really had a hard time getting up. I was still frustrated that we hadn’t found the boy and I was also tired and exhausted from the search. I made it to work and started my daily work routine. At around 8:30 am, I received an email from a co-worker, informing me they had found the boy….and he was not alive. I immediately contacted one of our REACT members that was on the scene to get more details.
I found out that early this morning, four search and rescue dogs were searching the same area by the shore line we had flagged the night before. During the search, while the dogs were in the water, they stirred the water ……….and it somehow caused the boy’s body to come free from the debris and he floated to the edge of the lake. Yes, where we spent 30 minutes the night before looking, was where the boy was at. Since he was caught up under the debris, we could not have seen him if we tried. If it had not been for the four dogs stirring up the water, he still would not have been found.
During the search last night, the boys aunt, uncle and other relatives, were with us searching. It was an emotional time for everyone involved. I can’t imagine being a parent, searching for my lost child, knowing that the results could turn out to be bad news.
www.okcentralreact.org
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