Emergency management expands missing person knowledge

MT. PLEASANT — Henry County Emergency Management brought in speakers from the Iowa SAR K-9 Coalition as they hosted a Lost Person Behavior class as part of the District 5 Emergency Management Spring Retreat this past month.

The spring retreat, which included Southeast Iowa emergency management teams from Henry, Wapello, Jefferson and Van Buren counties, consisted of two days at Oakland Mills filled with trainings like the TC Energy gas pipeline emergency simulation, education from the National Weather Service, and this Lost Person Behavior class.

After a successful training with TC Energy, those attending the retreat participated in the National Weather Service seminar the next morning, then that afternoon the Iowa Search and Rescue Canine group came down from Des Moines to speak on finding lost people. Emergency Management Director Walt Jackson stated this was “the most valuable of all of it.”

According to Jackson, the group brought a couple dogs with them and ran a few exercises for the group to observe.

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“One of the handlers walked down the road toward the cabins and did a 90-degree turn by some bushes and they gave the dog the scent and he started searching,” Jackson detailed. “Once he picked up on that scent, it was almost a run straight down and where she did a 90-degree turn, he didn’t even slow down. He went straight to her. It was just amazing to watch.”

The class on finding missing people also included Mary Graber sharing her story about how this exact K-9 group helped bring her family closure when her father passed away many years before.

“She lost her father several years ago,” Jackson said. “And he drowned. So, they brought in a group of cadaver dogs and they found her father in the river and she came to talk about how valuable the dogs were and having closure with the family.”

Graber’s story not only gave a personal understanding to the lessons learned through this class, but when it turned out that one of the K-9 handlers that came to the retreat had actually been on the team that found Graber’s father, the impact was further amplified.

While Jackson said he was unaware that the canine unit existed before the retreat, he intends to use their services if they ever need help to recover or find a person in the future.

“The information that came from that class is just invaluable,” Jackson said. “It really just makes you think about the way you start looking for people when they’re lost, and it’s a lot different from we normally would do it.”

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com