Search and Rescue gets scientific
Posted Jun 22, 2010 04:50:15 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The science of finding people who get lost is being discussed in Halifax this week.
A search and rescue profiler from Virginia is sharing data that has been collected all around the world.
Robert Kester has a degree in neurobiology and has learned from an obvious source in the search for the lost.
“It’s really the lost people who are helping search and rescue figure out where to look for people who are similar,” said Kester.
All that data has been collected from around the world and it shapes how a search is conducted; for example a boy with autism and how he’ll keep moving.
“They have very little regard for their own personal safety,” he said. “They’re often attracted to water.”
Search and rescue officials experienced that first hand in the James Delorey case last December. Kester says people with dementia are also hard to find.
They will hide in thick brush and they don’t call out for help.
He is sharing his experience with police, the Emergency Measures Organization and search and rescue volunteers this week.
