Terrace Search and Rescue was stretched to capacity in September and October, with volunteer teams having to respond in some cases to more than one emergency at a time.
Shortly after the lengthy search for Ike Murray and Michael Devlin Sabo, Terrace Search and Rescue was dealing with other crises right away.
They were also responding to other calls during the search for Murray and Sabo.
“I’m expecting it to end for some reason. In our world it doesn’t end, though,” said Terrace Search and Rescue official Dave Jephson of trained volunteers who respond to calls from assistance.
“In the midst of all this [the search for Murray and Sabo we had] five or six calls,” said Jephson.
The list included looking for a missing mushroom picker near Stewart, not an unusual request for Terrace Search and Rescue which can travel throughout the region.
The picker subsequently walked out on his own.
Aside from the Murray/Sabo search, the largest and most extensive of its kind in the area in several decades, volunteers were alerted to the case of Dan Driediger, a Terrace man who left his house Sept. 20 for parts unknown.
Volunteers spent time looking for Driediger on Thornhill Mountain. He was later discovered deceased at a creek west of Terrace on Hwy 16.
On Sept. 25, three Terrace Search and Rescue members responded to an SOS signal near Hartley Bay which later turned out to be a false alarm.
And on Sept. 26 Terrace Search and Rescue members were ready to assist their Kitimat counterparts after two fishermen were stranded on the Kitimat River after their boat sank.
Kitimat Search and Rescue, along with RCMP and DFO officers rescued the two people.
Another call out took place October 5 when two men hiking on Copper Mountain found themselves unprepared for stormy weather which had brought snow down to the high elevation.
After receiving a cell phone call from the two men, who were dressed in shorts, search and rescue volunteers flew in a Lakelse Air helicopter to retrieve the pair.
Terrace RCMP Constable Angela Rabut said she has great respect for search and rescue teams who go out in all kinds of weather.
“Search and Rescue are a committed and amazing group of volunteers,” said Rabut.