If you happen to see a few dozen people scouring the area around Winter Lake and the Deer Ridge Environmental Reserve in the west part of town with flashlights, GPS devices and walkie-talkies on the evening of Oct. 5, don't be alarmed.
The Olds Search and Rescue Society will be conducting a search exercise that evening from 7 to 10 p.m. as part of the organization's basic training requirements.
The search area will stretch from 55 Street to 60 Street and includes Destiny Place.
Searchers will be looking for a 72-year-old man experiencing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and dementia who took his dogs for a walk from a seniors facility in the area and did not return.
The society will receive a call to begin the search after the man has been missing for two hours.
Myrna Dawson, the society's search manager, said her husband will play the mock victim.
She said the search is a “full-team event” for the society, which has 23 members, and could include members from Didsbury and Sundre.
The purpose of the exercise is for members to learn various skills necessary for urban searches of this nature including tracking, first aid, what gear they'll need, how much spacing between members is appropriate for different types of searches and how to communicate with search managers at a command post.
Searchers will be checking the large street-side grass clippings bins and will be looking over fences and into vehicle windows for the missing person but they will not enter any residential yards or touch any vehicles.
Clues such as a dog leash will be left for searchers to find and whenever a search team—which consists of at least three members— comes across a clue they will have to communicate the GPS location of the clue over the radio to search managers at the society's home base located north of the intersection of highways 27 and 2A.
Following the mock search, the society will hold a debriefing to evaluate how the exercise went and to identify ways to improve searching techniques.
The society carries out three mock searches every year and although not every one includes a live missing person, Dawson said having a flesh-and-blood participant helps keep the search as real as possible.
Jack Humphries, the society's past-president, said real urban searches are rare in this community.
“In Olds, we haven't had that many,” he said, adding he remembers two separate real searches that happened a number of years ago for young girls who went missing but were found.
The society will distribute notices to homes in the area where the search will take place to advise people about the exercise.
For more information, contact the society at 403-556-5994.
