Favorable weather and plenty of rainfall led to increased recreational activity along the Buffalo National River in 2013, which meant a busier year for the park’s search and rescue team, as well.
According to data from the park, the Buffalo National River Search and Rescue team responded to 39 instances in 2013, more than twice the number in 2012.
“The most striking difference was the water,” said Kevin Moses, district ranger for the park’s middle district, and search and rescue coordinator for the park.
Moses said that whenwater levels on the Buffalo River are as low as they were in 2012, floating the river is more like “hiking with a boat.”
“You’re just dragging more than you’re paddling,” Moses said. “In 2012, there were places where the river just dried up, and a lot of folks just didn’t want to do that.”
Record rainfall in 2013 led to flooding in several northern Arkansas counties, leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency to declare Benton, Boone, Carroll, Madison, Marion and Newton counties as federal disaster areas in early September. The rainfall also extendedthe canoeing and kayaking season well beyond its typical end in mid- to late summer on the Buffalo and other Arkansas rivers.
Moses and Karen Bradford, chief ranger at the Buffalo National River, said there were no specific locations inside the park where accidents or injuries tended to occur more often than others.
“There’s no pattern, no consistency as to when or where people get hurt,” Bradford said. “In late April, early March, around spring break, [accidents] tend to follow the river. The runoff starts in the upper district, then peters out around June. In June, it picks up in the middle [district], then flows into the lower [district]. The water’s real placid, not really moving at that point. There’s just a lot of paddling.”
Searches and rescues, Moses said, are typically a matter of planning and behavior.
“A lot of these ‘rescues’ are almost like ‘visitor assists,’” he said. “We’re giving them headlamps and hiking them out.”
Moses said a chief cause of distress among boaters at the park is a lack of proper footwear and having no plan for what to do if their kayaks or canoes get damaged or lost.
“Folks will be wearing flip-flops in their canoe, and all of a sudden, they capsize, or their canoe gets pinned against a tree, and now they’re barefoot,” Moses said, adding that the Buffalo National River wilderness is extremely challenging to hike with no shoes.
Of the 39 calls that the Buffalo National River Search and Rescue team handled in 2013, two resulted in fatalities. The first was on May 6, when a 79-year-old woman from Vermont struck her head on a tree while kayaking, according to a statement issued by the park. The woman became trapped underwater when her kayak capsized. She was underwater for about 45 minutes before she and a friend were discovered by boaters floating on the river that day.
The second fatality occurred on May 31, when a 28-year-old man dove off a 25-foot bluff near the Erbiecampground into the river when it was near flood stage. Rangers and volunteers with the Buffalo National River Search and Rescue team, along with three other search and rescue agencies, hunted for three days before the man’s body was found. Their efforts were slowed by the turbid, fast-moving water and heavy rains.
The deaths were the park’s first fatalities tied to search and rescue efforts in about two years.
But, weather conditions aren’t always a good indicator of how busy the search and rescue team will be during a year. In 2010, when most of Arkansas was still deep into a drought, the Buffalo National River Search and Rescue team responded to 64 calls, including seven fatalities.
Moses said the team has seven to nine training days each year. Of those days, three or four are spent training staff members and volunteers on high-angle rescues; and one or more days are spent on swift-water rescues, cave rescues, motorboat use, and general search and rescue skills, Moses said.
“All those things we do, they’re all pretty specialized,” Moses said. “On a year when we don’t have a real mission, it’s easy to get rusty.”
Moses said each of the training sessions are typically attended by a dozen to three dozen people. He said there are about 30 active members in the Buffalo National River Search and Rescue team. Half of them are “paid professionals” and the other half are “volunteer professionals,” who come from diverse professions, ranging from mechanics and tattoo artists to farmers and pastors.
“My hat’s off to this team,” Moses said. “Search and rescue is never a ‘one-rescuer show.’”
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/13/2014