Wednesday, February 10, 2010

We help in a rescue...

We have no idea how we get into some of the situations that we do. We are both a work in progress and the Lord is still forming us the way He wants us to be. Saturday evening we were getting ready to close up the emergency service center and secure it for the night. I think I forgot to mention that we were not only serving as the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief assessment team, but we had been given a state of Arizona promotion to security team members by having a key to the building which allowed us to shower, so we had no problem with the additional duty. But, we digress. As I was trying to lock the door, the state's network engineer resource management man, Owen, (a really nice guy) came back with the above HAM radio. I have no idea how the HAM radio system works, but it is a really good thing to have when problems occur. Owen picked up a call for help by another HAM radio operator that came across an injured hiker that could not walk without assistance. After a few seconds of discussion, I called 911 and relayed the information as it came to Owen. Norm ran to the truck and brought our road atlas so we could locate the hikers position and help direct the rescue services. The on site HAM operator provided Owen with GPS coordinates which improved the accuracy of finding their location. After one small glitch, (talking with the 911 operator twice, the Maricopa sheriffs office twice and the Phoenix Fire department once and almost having the Tonto Basin Fire department come to our location) the Maricopa county helicopter airlifted the hiker to safety. I think Owen had at least three HAM radio comrades helping him and the rescue departments. It was a great feeling to help someone and see the HAM radio system function as well as it did.
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1 comment:

Tamara Dawn said...

Hooray!...I've always loved happy endings, good job guys;)