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,...
TEXSAR: Texas Search and Rescue is honored to have received a donation of 20 EpiPens in the form of ten two-packs from leading pharmaceutical company, Mylan. This critically important donation is valued at approximately $5,750. Mylan is, “one of the largest generics and specialty pharmaceutical companies in the world, manufacturing and marketing more than 1,400 different products to retail, wholesale, government and institutional customers.” The EpiPen is used to treat severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) to insect...
2015 was a milestone for Texas Search and Rescue. We are pleased to announce the publication of our first annual report, which you may view by following this link to ISSUU, or this link to SlideShare. A conservative estimate of volunteer hours contributed by TEXSAR member volunteers during 2015 is 20,850. If we multiply that figure by the value of a volunteer hour according to the State of Texas, TEXSAR donated more than half a million dollars...
TEXSAR is honored to have received a generous contribution from the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation (IICF). The following article was written by Rich Gergasko, President & CEO of Texas Mutual Insurance Company and a member of the Insurance Industry Charitable Foundation Texas/Southeast Division Board of Directors. IICF Campaign Helps Flood Recovery in Texas “During a time when Texans are typically gearing up to fend off the oncoming extreme heat, this year, much of the state experienced damaging storms, tornadoes and flooding. After...
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...
At approximately 5 a.m. on March 9, 2015, a missing 74 year old nursing home patient departed his home during a cold rain storm. Rockwall Police requested lost person behavior consulting and planning search planning assistance while TEXSAR ground and K9 assets were routed to the search area. A TEXSAR member who also works for the Rockwall Police Department conducted a hasty search and located the man deceased less than a mile away from the nursing home in thick brush. TEXSAR...
