I was browsing some news and read the story below. Here in Colorado that could easily have been a life threatening event.
NORTH PORT, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman who became lost during a half-marathon trail run was found past nightfall after wandering around a 25,000-acre park for nearly 12 hours.
The Sarasota Times-Herald reports Melissa Kitcher was in good spirits after being found Sunday evening. She says she made a wrong turn more than three miles into the 13.1-mile run.
Race director Thierry Rouillard says he had no idea Kitcher was still on the trail until her husband called late Sunday afternoon, hours after the Trail Hog run finished. Sarasota County Sheriff's Office deputies began searching soon after.
Kitcher says her cell phone froze before the race but she never really worried since she knew her family would come looking for her. She plans to run the Sarasota Half Marathon in March and finish.
We, ARES members, pride ourselves on our ability to communicate over amateur radio but I will suggest we should spend more time practicing the "what" we are communicating! Because Hams tend to be geeks we are asked to do a lot of things at large events and incidents that do not fall into the "Amateur Radio" category. I think that's okay and welcome the opportunity to help out any way I can. It increases our contribution to solving the incident/event and makes us more valuable to our served agencies. But when it comes to communication and in this instance specifics such as runner bib numbers is it enough to just communicate the bib number and go on? I think not.
I do not know the details of this particular race and mean no ill towards the event staff and only use this as a good example for us to learn from. I carry a small notebook that fits in the leg pocket of my super cool tactical pants (inside humor...) that I get to wear at ARES events just like this. I write everything down in it. At the end of my shift I go someplace quiet that has a desk where I transfer everything over to an ICS-214. For me it beats keeping a folded up copy of a 214 in my pocket that gets trashed during my shift while I walk around, sit, climb, or do anything else asked of me. Other folks have other ways of doing theirs and that's okay. Just as long as it gets done. It is incredibly important to complete the 214 for every shift and I'm the first one to admit I need to practice more at doing mine!
Using the notebook I can write any and everything down at the moment it happens. REMEMBER: IF IT ISN'T WRITTEN DOWN IT DID NOT HAPPEN! I can't stress that enough. So what gets written down in the 214? In a nutshell it's the 3 A's. Actions, Accidents, and Agreements. What Actions have I taken on my own or have been asked to take at the request of Net Control? What Accidents have I witnessed or been on scene of and what are the details of said accident(s)? Lastly, what I have told someone I would do and when did I do it or what have I agreed to and when did I do it?
Before turning in your ICS 214 use your cell phone to grab a good photo of all pages you've written on so that you have a copy should something come up down the road. Thanks for indulging me by reading some ramblings of mine.
Thank-You also for your continued support and as always, if you have a question please direct it to ec at arapahoeares dot org.
73 de KCØVAQ