NEW SEARCH AND RESCUE Team SLOWLY GROWING

Since being formed last year in the wake of the disbanding of the old Adair County Rescue Squad, the new Adair County Search and Rescue Team has been slowly growing and working to become an emergency organization to serve the community in times of need.
And while progress has been made with the organization, a lack of equipment – most notably vehicles – and a home base have hampered its growth.
“Right now, we have 25 team members,” Adair County Emergency Management Director Greg Thomas, who is overseeing the organization, said. “Plus, we have four or five more applicants on which we’re waiting for background checks from the Kentucky State Police.”
Thomas said that the team members meet monthly, and are going through various training courses.
“We had training courses in radio operation, hazardous materials, weather spotting, and other things,” he explained.
He also noted that around 10 team members have completed the County Emergency Response Team (CERT) course, which is a 21-hour course that touches on, among other things, first aid, fire suppression and search and rescue. Another CERT course will be offered starting in May, and he said he expects several more search and rescue team members to take this course.
(The CERT course is open to all emergency personnel as well as the general public. For more information about the course, contact Thomas at 378-1885.)
One big boost the organization recently added to help them out was two-way radios and a dedicated frequency.
“Now that we’ve finally got radios, we can do a lot better job communicating and mobilizing,” Thomas noted. “Before, we had to rely on phones and cell phones, and there are still a lot of places cell phones won’t pick up.”
At the present time, Thomas said the search and rescue team will respond to incidents such as drownings, body recoveries, mutual aid, evacuations, school crisises, off-road accidents where an ATV is needed, and searches for lost, missing or overdue people.
The team will also be called out for weather spotting when severe weather threatens.
“The definition of a search and rescue organization is ‘to render aid to people in distress,’ and that’s what we’re attempting to do with the best of our abilities and the equipment that we have,” he said.
A lack of equipment, and a place to keep it, are the biggest obstacles that the new organization is facing at the present time, Thomas noted.
“We were able to get some equipment that the old rescue squad had which state Emergency Management had provided grant money for, such as a couple of boats and a four-wheeler,” he noted. “But, the vehicles and some of the other equipment they had is still tied up in court.
“Right now, we don’t have any vehicles to drive or haul equipment, so everyone is having to use their own personal vehicles,” he continued.
And, the fact that the search and rescue team doesn’t have any type of headquarters prevents them from getting more equipment, Thomas said.
“We need to have a building of some type were we can store our equipment and use as a base of operations,” he said. “Right now, all of our equipment is in a storage building, and it’s full.
“We’ve got $3,000 to $4,000 in the bank that we could use to buy equipment, but we’ve got to find a place to put it first,” he continued.
He said they are presently looking for a building to buy or rent, or even more so, a building that someone would donate for their use.
“If we can get a building, everything would be so much better for the organization,” he noted.
Thomas said that anyone that may have or know of a possible site can  contact him at 378-1885.
While the Adair County Search and Rescue Team still has a long way to go to reach the level of operation it wants to be at, Thomas said that he is pleased with the way things have progressed.
“As Emergency Management Director, I’m really excited about this new group,” he stated. “We have a dedicated group of people who are willing to do what it takes to make it go.
“And, Judge (Ann) Melton recently signed our affiliation agreement for the next year, so apparently the county has faith in the organization as well.”