BEND, OR -- Deschutes County Search and Rescue is staffed up and ready for the busy Fourth of July holiday. "We get the visitors who come to see us - we live in a beautiful area. We’ll have the people on the lakes, people on the motorcycles, mountain biking, you name it," says Lt. Ty Rupert. He tells KBND News holiday periods are typically busy for his SAR teams. But summer weather and activities take it up a notch, "I believe over the last holiday weekend we had, I think we had six calls for service that weekend alone."

DCSO SAR frequently responds to missions at popular spots like Smith Rock and local reservoirs, "Unfortunately, we’ll get the drowning calls. That’s where we want to make sure to encourage folks to always wear life jackets, have their water safety. I know that one of the causes we see is alcohol or impairment in drownings. So we want to encourage people not to mix the two." But they’re also ready if they need to deploy outside Deschutes County, "On the east side of the mountains, we’re the largest search and rescue in the state. We also are a fully-equipped search and rescue. We have our own dive teams, our mountain rescue teams, and such, K9s, medical. And so, we’re often times called upon by other counties."

Lt. Rupert says visitors often don't realize how the weather can change very quickly and he urges everyone to be prepared for anything, "We had a person, I believe it was last year, that was visiting from another country, and they went hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail. Weather here in Bend was hot and nice, and they weren’t prepared. They were in sandals when they were hiking and they woke up the next morning to a fair amount of snow on the ground. And they called Search and Rescue for us to come rescue them and come get them out of that situation." He says packing appropriate gear and wearing the right shoes are critical to avoid needing rescue. 

file photo