Austin, Texas –TEXSAR: Texas Search and Rescue will host an informational meeting for citizens interested in joining their ranks. The meeting will be Saturday, March 11, 9:00 a.m. at the Sunset Valley City Hall. The informational meeting will explain what it takes to become a member of TEXSAR. Areas of membership include Ground Search and Rescue, Flood and Swiftwater Technicians, Incident Management, Disaster Response, Wildland Firefighting, Medical Team, as well as Non-Field Support Roles. There is a...
Austin, Texas –The Annual TEXSAR Team Meeting and Training Weekend took place February 3, 4, and 5 at McKinney Roughs Nature Park in Bastrop, Texas. More than 75 TEXSAR Team Members from across the state convened at the park for a full weekend of classroom training, field training, food, and fellowship. Training topics such as K9 Searches and Support, Technology in Search and Rescue, Tracking, and Wilderness First Aid were just a few of the courses conducted over the weekend. The...
Austin, Texas – We are proud to release our Annual Report for 2016. 2016 turned out to be a busy year with 48 missions from the Gulf Coast to far West Texas. TEXSAR member-volunteers who were on scene to assist will forever remember incidents like the Caldwell County Hot Air Balloon Disaster and the search for ZuZu Verk. We pride ourselves on being in a constant state of readiness. We are geared up and ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, trained...
K9 handler, Jennifer Blanton, and Travis County Fire Rescue attend to the K9’s during a search on October, 30th, 2016 in southeast Travis County, TX. Austin, TX — Skeletal remains were discovered this weekend by TEXSAR cadaver dogs. At the request of Travis County Sheriff’s Office, TEXSAR, Texas Search and Rescue, was tasked with searching an area off of Maha Loop in southeast Austin. The search area was determined after officials received a tip that indicated 33-year-old Paul Michael Longoria,...
Alpine, Texas – On Tuesday, October 18, 2016, the Texas Rangers called the TEXSAR, Texas Search and Rescue, Emergency Activation Line and requested search planning assistance for the Zuzu Renee Verk missing person case in Alpine, Texas. Ms. Verk, a student at Sul Ross University in Alpine, Texas, was last heard from Wednesday, October 12. Dozens of TEXSAR team members from the Gulf Coast, Coastal Bend, Central Texas, North Texas, and West Texas, converged in Alpine to work in coordination with...
September 22, 2015 For Immediate Release TEXSAR: Texas Search and Rescue Has Reached the GuideStar Gold Level Profile as a Demonstration of Its Commitment to Transparency Austin, Texas – TEXSAR: Texas Search and Rescue today achieved the Gold GuideStar Nonprofit Profile level. GuideStar is the world’s largest source of information about nonprofit organizations and a leader in advancing transparency in the nonprofit sector. This level demonstrates TEXSAR’s deep commitment to nonprofit transparency and accountability. “We have worked hard to showcase our progress toward our mission, and our long-held belief...
Texas Search and Rescue (TEXSAR) is saddened by the devastating floods that have impacted our state over the last two weeks. This tragic loss of life and property has shaken our local communities. TEXSAR deployed to the Blanco River floods in the early morning hours of Sunday May 24th, directly from another deployment located almost 250 miles away. The first morning our team was able to perform 37 water rescues in Martindale, Texas. Since that time, our team has spent...
Crystal Beach, TX Texas Search and Rescue (TEXSAR) deployed rescue swimmers, paramedics, fire fighters and support personnel over Memorial Day weekend to the Bolivar Peninsula. Over the holiday weekend, estimated crowds of 100,000 people overflowed onto the peninsula. Working at the request of the Galveston County Office of Emergency Management in support of the Crystal Beach Fire Department and the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office, TEXSAR members backed up emergency services on Crystal Beach deploying rescue boats and swimmers and utilized...
The First Annual TEXSAR Team Meeting and Training Weekend was held this past weekend on May 15, 16 and 17 at the beautiful LCRA Black Rock Park on Lake Buchanan. Over 50 TEXSAR Team Members from all across the state convened at the camp for a full weekend of classroom training, field training, water rescue training, food and fellowship. Training topics such as K9 searches, HAZMAT and WMD’s, K9 first aid and assisting individuals w/ disabilities were just a...
On Sunday, May 10th, 2015, at the request of the Texas Rangers and Bandera County Sheriff’s Office, several TEXSAR K9 handlers were pulled off of a local training exercise to conduct a spontaneous search for a man who was reported missing the prior month. The impromptu search was conducted after the man’s vehicle was located in the brush and swampy terrain of the Lake Medina lake bed not far from the training location. After a brief search, TEXSAR’s K9 team...
