VIDEO: The early part the year tends to be the calmer season for local search and rescue crews, but that has not been the case so far this year in Skamania County, where crews report seeing a record number of rescues over the past three months.
Volunteers who spoke to KGW said local search and rescue crews have seen a 550% increase in rescues compared to the same time period last year, with many of the rescues taking place in the Columbia River Gorge or near Mount St. Helens. “We normally don’t have that many callouts; we spend a lot of our time the first quarter doing a lot of training,” said Skamania County search and rescue volunteer Serge Newberry.
He said the crews have been getting calls every other week, if not weekly, since January, sparking more than a dozen search and rescue missions in just the first three months of the year. It’s a very unusual pace, he said, even in a county known for its many outdoor adventure opportunities. “Skamania County attracts so many different outdoor enthusiasts, we have the Pacific Crest Trail, we have some beautiful scenery, we have all kinds of hiking,” said Newberry.
