Editor's note: This updates with plans to use a helicopter to pull the trio out of the backcountry.
Winter's latest punch to the East caught three Appalachian Trail hikers in Great Smoky Mountains National Park unprepared and needing to be rescued by rangers, who called in a helicopter to lift the three out.
The three men from Gaffney, South Carolina, -- Shawn Hood, Steven White, and Jonathan Dobbins -- had set out from Fontana Dam on Thursday with plans for a ten-day hike. But last night they called rangers to say they were cold and wet and needed help as they were unable to walk and had no shelter.
Responding rangers were able to reach the trio -- all between the ages of 21 and 32 -- and brought dry clothing and tents.
"They are being treated for hypothermia and possible frostbite. All three are very weak and cannot walk," said Kent Cave, the park's supervisory ranger. "Plans have been made to extricate the hikers using a helicopter from the North Carolina Helicopter and Aquatic Rescue Team (HART) early this afternoon."
Overnight temperatures in the park were reported to be "in the single digits and winds gusting to 35 miles per hour made wind chills near 20 degrees below zero," the park reported. "Blowing snow created drifts up to two feet. Rescue efforts were hampered by weather, road, and trail conditions, as well as the remote, rugged location. The men were located some 5 miles from the nearest trailhead."
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From Knoxnews.com:
The cost for a rescue operation can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars.
Total search-and-rescue costs for 2010 hit $99,107.91 with 106 incidents. Four involved fatalities.
Total search-and-rescue costs for 2011 increased to $133,068.03 with 108 incidents and five fatalities.
Total search-and-rescue costs for 2012 reached $253,550 with 104 incidents, two involving fatalities.
Kloster said they average about 100 search and rescues a year. Most are carry-outs for a broken leg, blown knees, broken ankles and medical incidents such as hypothermia or heart attacks, he said.
The money to cover the costs of search-and-rescue missions comes from three sources — depending on the amount.
The local national park offices pay expenses from $0 and $100. The Southeast regional office in Atlanta pays between $100 and $500. The national office picks up any costs over $500, he said.
“Obviously, the National Park Service can’t predict how much they’ll spend on search and rescues all year,” he said. “On the Lueking search, we spent over $75,000. All costs associated with that search were paid for out of our Washington office.”
Kloster said the budget sequestration led most national park managers to cut back on travel for rangers — such as those who also serve as wildland fire responders. The unintended benefit is that those same rangers are now available for search-and-rescue duty at their home parks.
Article
The article is rather interesting (even if the format is lousy) and details the problems with a lack of funds in general in the park.
There have been a lot of less than intelligent comments posted here through the years, but here's one that just about tops them all: ". . . . . but here in the South, we see these things as our personal duty and not the responsibility of the federal government."
Isn't website anonymity wonderful? Most people would be very embarrassed to have their name displayed along with something like that.
If that is true, you just identified why this country is going down the drain. I would be quite proud to say that I believe in personal responsibility rather than government dependency.
And I too believe the "rescued" should pay. Just like we do in every other unfortunate event. Health, car, home, possessions .... If we don't take proper precautions we insure or we pay.
Contextual reading. Remember contextual reading. Go back and read the post from which this clip was taken. Personal duty? Whose?
Duty to rescue these guys or duty to stay out of trouble in the first place? Duty to pay for rescue? And is the South the only place that values personal responsibility? Or is this just one more example of a very long and tiresome tirade against park administration standing in the way of one who feels very strongly that he is ENTITLED to what he wants, when he wants it, how he wants it, and where he wants it, without accepting the personal responsibility of paying for it?
Well, it was southerners, in a southern location, requiring the assistance of the federal government. Lee has a point. The statement is ironic in this case (and rather moronic, but we won't go there).
In this particular case, the hikers were unprepared and lacking in basic knowledge needed for the situation. But, even the most prepared and knowledgeable hikers run into situations that no amount of knowledge or preparedness can overcome (like the guy who had a tree fall on him).
Actually, this situation is a metaphor for what is happening in this country. Do you think that if there was nobody to perform a rescue and if they couldn't rely on calling out on a cell phone that they would have been so irresponsible? We have taken away the "cost" of being irresponsible and as a result, people have become irresponsible knowing the government will bail them out.
The purpose, dating to hunters and gatherers bonding into a group living in one cave, for groups from neighborhood watch up to the UN, is to protect the weak and vulnerable and to provide for what one person can't do for themselves.
To hypothesize that, absent a rescue function people would no longer get intosituations requiring rescue is at best naive.
Indeed it would be naive if anyone actually hypothesized that. But nobody did.
Unfortunately we are providing for people that won't do for themselves, because they know they don't have to.