Missouri HSART Trains to Rescue people from trees

The partnership between Missouri HSART, the Missouri National Guard and the Missouri Task Force 1 provides training for rescue technicians to help disaster relief nationwide. We saw what Hurricane Harvey did to Houston this past August, leaving many people stranded on telephone polls, trees, and, hanging on for their lives. Technician training is crucial to saving as many lives as we can during these natural disasters.

The training today consisted of using a live victim on the ground, then a rescuer comes from a helicopter and picks that victim up off the ground or a tree. They use radio communication and hand signals to reach victims as soon as possible. Terry Cassil of Task Force 1 explained the difficulty of the skill at hand, “they have to fight their way in to get the victim, to get them harnessed up, to make sure its safely done.” It is a very high risk job for the technicians, there are many variables to saving a persons life while stranded.

Missouri HSART will be training technicians twice a month and next month they will be moving to water rescues. Chuck Leake, the Red Leader of Task Force explained the necessity of a technicians job, “rescue somebody when they’re holding on for dear life. When they see this black fight suit coming their way underneath a green Missouri National Guard helicopter. They know the Missouri HSART is there to help.” It is a job we hope the state of Missouri will not need, but if we do, Leake said they will be prepared.