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DEM #98-1062 June 10, 1998 |
The unit was contacted by the Pierce County Department of Emergency Management on Wednesday night June 10 at 8:06 p.m. A 61 year old kayaker Robert Artus had disappeared on the Carbon River while kayaking with two friends. He and his friends put their kayaks in the carbon river just below the town of Carbonado and planed to take them out at the highway bridge in Orting. One of the kayakers decided against running the river after he saw the high water flow, the subject and the other kayaker continued on. The subject started down the river first and his friend lost sight of him at a bend in the river. The friend continued on down to the hiway bridge where he was supposed to meet up with the subject, but after a two hour wait with no sign of him he decided to call for help.
The call from DEM was received during the monthly membership meeting and numerous members there responded, so a call-out was not made. The members responding were. Mike Mixon, Jim Andrues, Rob Lutz, Fran McFarland. Chris Berryman, Dave Treber, Phil Pletcher, Duane Perham, Larry and Connie Crum, Ray Ward, Joe Recency, Ed Hrivnak, Jeff Sharp, Lee Tegner, Stan and Angela Kartes. Roger Ternes and Maria Level also arrived at the search base but after the teams had left. (They were disappointed but as it turned out not for long, Editor)
The team members were told to meet at the Carbon River Fish Hatchery on Highway 162 as soon as possible. After meeting at the search base, the Operations Leader Jeff Sharp received a briefing from the Pierce County Sheriff. The plan was to have to teams search the river. One would go to the place where the subject had put in the river and search downstream .The other would cross private property to access the lower portion of the river and search upstream.
The first team consisting of the certified Swift water trained members, would go to the put in point. They were Mike Mixon Jim Andrues, Rob Lutz, Chris Berryman, Ed Hrivnak, Larry and Connie Crum, and Lee Tegner. The second team consisted of Jeff Sharp, Duane Perham, Fran McFarland, Dave Treber. Ray Ward, Joe Rusinko, and Stan and Angela Kartes. Both teams left the Search Base around 10:00 P.M. Then proceeded to their assignments and search both banks of the river until they could see the lights of the other team. This portion of the Carbon is vary narrow with steep sloping walls and swift moving rapids. Both teams had to be careful not to be caught or fall in the river. After four hours of muddy searching with no results, they returned to the search base around 3 A.M. After a debriefing some of the team decided to go home to get some rest before going, to work while seven members stayed to begin the search again at daylight.
Around 9:30 a.m Mr Artus floated into the search base on his own, he had spent the night alone and waited for daylight. He had not seen the search teams and was quite embarrassed at all the fuss. Our team members were recalled and thought they were going home for some much need rest. But fates had other plans for the Tacoma Mountain Rescue Team later that day.
Tacoma Mountain Rescue |
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