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Review Vol.17
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Number 27
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Thursday, July 2, 2015
Serving the communities of Keremeos, Cawston, Okanagan Falls and Kaleden
Missing hikers found safe in Cathedral Lakes Tara Bowie Review Staff
The cost of the search and rescue of a Northern Ontario couple lost in the Cathedral Lakes area could be in excess of $100,000. Lynne Carmody and Rick Moynan from North Bay, Ontario went missing Sunday, June 21 when they failed to return to the lodge where they were staying after what was supposed to be just a day hike. The couple was found a week later relatively unscathed with just bug bites, cuts and bruises from walking through underbrush and dehydrated. They received medical attention at Penticton hospital and were released. After a week of searching, Carmody and Moynan surfaced not far from the lodge. “What we believe is Saturday they had seen us pulling search teams out of the forrest,” Paul Barry, one of the search manager’s said during an interview Monday. “They could see the rescuers. They were in such close proximity they
could see the colour of the rope. They tried to yell but at that point couldn’t be heard. They knew they were too far down the hill to be seen. They determined they needed to make themselves more visible to be found.” The pair left the lodge with just a bagged lunch, which was gone within the first 24 hours. It’s unknown at this point what if anything they ate while they were missing. When the couple realized they were disoriented they made a leanto shelter near a creek so they had access to fresh water. During the search teams from 19 search and rescue organizations throughout the province helped scour more than 200 kilometres of forrest. The crews at times included ground crews, RCMP K-9 units and five helicopters. Although Barry was unable to provide a definite dollar figure he acknowledged the search for the hikers was a costly one. “Just for an idea, a helicopter is
$1,500 an hour. If you consider on Saturday we had four civilian helicopters and one RCMP helicopter in the air and each one was going from dawn till dusk... just that day alone was a big ticket item,” he said. In addition to helicopters, more than 40 search and rescue personnel worked to find the couple with tools including infra red devices. Despite the amount of resources dedicated to the search, hope was dwindling in the day and hours before the couple reappeared. Family members had arrived to the area at the start of this past weekend and the harsh reality was explained. “We had met with the family Saturday initially to begin talking about the realities.... They were told the scope of the search and that at that point no clues had been discovered. It was agreed with everyone that if nothing further was found by the end of day Sunday that the search would be suspended and Continued on page 9
Lynne Carmody
Rick Moynan
Courtesy of Facebook
Search and rescue volunteers from 19 areas worked for more than a week to find two missing hikers in Cathedral Lakes.
Four wildfires breakout in Lower Similkameen Review Staff
Submitted
Planes dropped retardant on a small wild fire on the mountainside near Hedley Friday night.
Wet weather Monday offered little relief to crews battling out of control fires in the area and throughout the province. “We have rain in the forecast for today (Monday) or tomorrow. Any amount of precipitation helps but we are headed right into another period of hot and dry so this is just a short reprieve,” Kelsey Winter, fire information officer for Kamloops BC Wildfire Service. said. Over the weekend 19 fires broke out in the Penticton zone, which includes Hedley, Keremeos and Cawston and encompasses everything from Lake Country, Kelowna, Penticton down to the US border. It was the busiest fire zone in the province for a 48-hour period.
Friday night Hedley residents were alerted to fire as airplanes buzzed by the area to dump retardant on a 0.7 hectare fire on the mountainside above the little village. “We’re trying to deal with fires as quick as possible so we’re getting out there as fast and soon as we can so they don’t get a chance to spread and draw on resources,” she said. By Monday morning the small fire was categorized as in mopup status meaning firefighters have contained it and are working to ensure it is extinguished. The fire is believed to be human caused but is still under investigation. Residents in Cawston might have had their Saturday night lit up as
lightening caused three fires to catch starting around 7 p.m. The largest occurred near Hunter Creek and has grown to about 70 hectares in size. Two unit crews and a helicopter worked to put out the large fire into Monday afternoon. Two other fires classified as spot fires as they were less than a hectare in size occurred near Cawston Creek. The fires were responded to by crews and extinguished. “We want to remind people that we are headed into a period where the number of lightening fires increase so we really need to see the number of human caused fires decrease,” Winter said. Anyone who sees wild fire should call 5555 on their cell phone or 1-800-663-5555.