Union County Search & Rescue

This weekend our water rescue team took advantage of increased streamflows to do some training and kayak-handling practice on the Grande Ronde River upstream of La Grande. This stretch of river is popular for recreation, so our team takes advantage of opportunities like this to gain familiarity with the river and in-stream hazards at different water levels. With the passage of time and high flows, obstacles like trees move in and down the river, so regular trips allow us to be aware of areas where someone, or one of us, might get into trouble.

This weekend water rescue teams from Union and Wallowa counties joined together for two full days of training on the Wallowa and Grande Ronde rivers. Current and prospective water rescue team members from both counties practiced boat handling on a variety of boat types, swimming, using throw bags, and other skills. Team members also updated maps and photos of potential landing zone locations for patient evacuations, and tested radio coverage on different agencies' systems.

This type of training is invaluable for our team members to not only practice skills, but also grow familiarity and trust between teams to increase the efficiency of combined and/or mutual aid responses.

We'd like to extend a large and sincere thank you to everyone with Wallowa County Search and Rescue for making this possible, especially Kyle Bratcher, who lead the logistics and organization of this weekend's training.
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Union County Sheriff's Office
Oregon Department of Emergency Management
Oregon State Sheriffs' Association