Tuesday, November 14, 2017 Friends of TEXSAR, Hurricane Harvey was the costliest disaster to ever strike the United States, bringing with it record flooding and catastrophic winds along the Texas coastline. Texas Search and Rescue answered the call from agencies all across Texas, providing more than 700 volunteer hours by 85 members who rescued over 700 people and pets from Harvey floodwaters. Immediately following Hurricane Harvey, the 2nd annual TEXSAR Search Party fundraiser took place on September 30th where TEXSAR members and supporters...
Early in the morning on September 18 Senior Deputy Jessica Hollis of the Travis County Sheriff’s Office went missing in a flooded creek near Mansfield Dam. Over the next two days, members from over a dozen different agencies searched by ground, water, and air to find this missing deputy until the fallen deputy was located and recovered from Lake Austin. TEXSAR was honored to be one of the agencies called to participate in this search that leveraged every capability and every...
On the evening on May 27, 2014 TEXSAR received a request for assistance in searching for a three-year-old girl who had gone missing while playing in a flooded creek near her home in Caldwell County. Within two hours of the initial call, more than two-dozen TEXSAR members and canines were on site searching the swollen creek and the surrounding areas for the missing child. After 6 hours of searching, the TEXSAR Swiftwater Rescue and Canine teams were able to locate and...
FAST 1 on the Gaudalupe On a chilly March weekend 9 TEXSAR members completed their FAST 1 certifications and joined the 21 current certification holders to form the largest volunteer swiftwater rescue team in the state of Texas! The FAST 1 class, taught by TEXSAR’s own Shawn Hohnstreiter and Mark Baumann, was held on the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels, TX. The course started with classroom based learning on Friday evening and then moved to the frigid Guadalupe River where the...
TEXSAR assisted as requested by Caldwell County OEM for a missing person search near Polonia Road on Tuesday November 12, 2013. The person had gone missing during the October 31, 2013 flood event. DPS divers recovered the vehicle on Monday November 11, 2013. Working with Alamo Area SAR and Chisholm Trail VFD, TEXSAR located and recovered the missing person just before noon. The technical water recovery took two hours to complete and all personnel on scene exhibited strong skills. TEXSAR is appreciative...
When severe weather moved through the Central Texas region last week, TEXSAR was called upon to help those in need. For 5 straight days our members answered the calls to help their fellow Texans by conducting swiftwater rescues and participating in search and recovery efforts to help bring closure to families that tragically lost loved ones to the floods. Notable Callouts Included: Swiftwater rescue of motorist in Onion Creek flood waters off of I-35 access road. Support Hays County EOC swiftwater rescue efforts. Supports...
On Friday, November 1, 2013 TEXSAR members participated in multi-agency search and recovery effort along a flooded Onion Creek in Southeast Travis County. TEXSAR Members at the Onion Creek Search With crews in the air and on the ground, searchers from TEXSAR, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Game Wardens, Travis County Search and Rescue, APD Search and Rescue, and Alamo Area SAR were able to traverse the treacherous flood zone to locate and recover Josefina Rodriguez and her son Jay Rodriguez...
This weekend, TEXSAR members Shawn Hohnstreiter and John Michael Gibbs completed the final processes in gaining apprentice instructor status for vertical rope rescue and flood and swiftwater rescue. The new instructors join TEXSAR member and instructor Mark Baumann as the training cadre for TEXSAR’s vertical rescue team and flood and swiftwater rescue team. Regarding the achievement, Instructor Hohnstreiter said, “This represents the growth of our search and rescue team and our commitment to the community. We can be sure our technical...
On Saturday morning, May 19th, TEXSAR team members headed to New Braunfels to participate in a training “play day” with Wesley Meyers of Rescue Training International (RTI). The morning started at a heavily canopied canyon preserve where TEXSAR members, along with members from TMAR and first responders from across Texas, were provided with an overview of Land Search and Rescue Concepts and Lost Person Behavior Patterns. Participants then practiced and refined their line search and echo location skills. Next was...
