Category Archives: BSAR News

The social media has been full of pictures of swamped cars and snow machines but if you’re sober, sensible, and avoid night time travel our River is still OK

A BSAR team traveled today from Bethel to Napaimute. This is what they observed:

It is always amazing to see how fast the River heals after a warm spell. With temperatures only slightly cooler, a fresh coating of snow to soak up water and make the best routes more visible; traveling conditions have improved.

The Bethel waterfront is still unusually tricky to navigate: the two main accesses are a narrow slot right against the seawall in front of the Lomack Building. The better, safer access follows a round about route through the north side of the boat harbor, out the boat harbor slough, along the beach upstream to Crow’s old fish processing barge, and then out onto the main River ice. Once you are out on the main ice – STAY ON IT – until you get to your destination. The overflow is still deep along the sides.

From Bethel to Tuluksak the River was mostly dry with only the occasional very shallow puddle of half frozen water.

From Tuluksak to the lower end of the jam at Coffee’s Bend conditions were much the same with slightly more puddles.

Inside Coffees Bend there are still several ponds of half frozen overflow that are fairly deep. There has been a lot of Kalskag traffic today going down to watch the regionals at Akiak. 4WD Trucks go through no problem, but one traveler in a 4WD Ford Explorer had to get towed out of one pond. So nothing smaller than a truck recommended at this time. It is still too rough to go around most of these water holes.

From Kalskag to Aniak conditions improved, although there are still more puddles than the Lower River. But through this 30 miles or so the River is wide, not rough, and there is room to go around any wet spots.

Above Aniak for the next 30 miles to Napaimute conditions improve with very little overflow visible at all and almost none to drive through. This section of the River is also much smoother.

It’s important to note that with the recent warm spells quite a few of the road markers are down. There are still enough to follow in good weather, but in limited visibility there are areas where travelers may lose the trail.

This is what was observed today. As temperatures are forecasted to cool things should only get better.

Thank you.

*Please note that this is not an advisory that it is safe for travel. It is for informational purposes only.

L-R: Local Elders Bob Aloysius, Henry Tikiun, Peter Atchak, and William McCar enjoy a front row seat during the Annual BSAR Presentation

A big thank you to everyone that came to 2015 BSAR Annual Meeting and to the BSAR Board of Directors for putting it all together.

Good turn out at the 2014 BSAR Annual Meeting!

The 2015 BSAR Annual Meeting will be held February 19th at the BSAR Headquarters Building. A potluck style dinner will begin at 6PM with the meeting following. All BSAR Members, their families, and the general public are invited to attend. BSAR will be providing food but please bring a dish if you can.

Come see what BSAR has been doing over the past year and help us plan for the new one.

For more information call: 545-2877 or 545-4502

Thank you.

Day 45, 01-24-2015 was the last day of searching by BSAR for Stone on the Kuskokwak Slough. Everyone was exhausted, mentally and physically after a long stretch of laborious effort by so many from Bethel, Kwethluk, Akiak, Akiachak, Tuluksak, Napaskiak, Nunapitchuk and Atmautluak. Many thousands of pounds of ice, large and small blocks cut out and dragged away from the site. Over a hundred auger holes, several hundred feet of trenches dug in various weather conditions including, rain, snow, sunshine and temperatures fluctuating from -45 wind chills to 45 above zero.

Crossmon checking connections in the frigid cold

We are extremely grateful to all that assisted at the BSAR building,  to Bob and Shirley Samuelson, Ivy Riley, Olga Riley and many others who provided a hot meal for returning BSAR volunteers. And for the others who couldn’t help at the site, but helped keep the chain saws and augers sharpened and and other equipment running. “Thank you” to the A.C. Company who donated food and beverages, AVCP Inc. for gasoline, Calista Corporation and Bud & Marge Revet for a monetary donations. And finally Akiak for gasoline. If we missed anyone who donated for this effort, it was not intentional. This was a busy time.

Currently we have begun the process of partnering with local Bethel entities to assist us in acquiring our own ROV or Remote Operated Vehicle for service in the Y-K Delta. BSAR had learned valuable lessons from both Keith Cormican and Tom Crossmon the value of current technology which can greatly reduce the time and labor spent in body recovery efforts. And have decided that the apparatus most appropriate for the type of recovery missions we are involved in would be the VideoRay Pro 4, a submersible with multi-beam sonar and color video camera capabilities.  We also realized that if we had the VideoRay, the recovery effort for both Evan and Stone could have been successful within the first week of their tragedy. Our goal with the VideoRay, when received is to support recovery efforts in the entire Y-K Delta. See link below for more information.

http://www.videoray.com/homepage/professional-rovs/videoray-pro-4.html

We are asking all Search and Rescue groups, Tribal entities, Native Corporations, City governments and Public Safety organizations in the Y-K Delta to assist us with our goal by writing letters of support. We will be approaching our Senators and Representatives to help fund this important tool for our people.

If you are willing to donate money for the VideoRay, you can click on our donation link on our BSAR page or you can mail it to us.

Please send them to: BSAR President Mike Riley Box 2633, Bethel, AK 99559 or you can fax them to 543-4357. You can also email support letters to: mikeoriley@hotmail or bethelbarr@yahoo.com

BSAR also honored Tom Crossmon during his last evening in Bethel and was provided with a BSAR picture signed by all members of his “crew”, a pair of hand beaded gloves by Olga Riley, a BSAR ball cap, BSAR jacket and a baleen State of Alaska figure with the BSAR engraved with the BSAR logo on ivory mounted on caribou horn hand made by Christian Samuelson.

Day 44….calmer winds but cooler temperatures of -14 did not hinder efforts today. BSAR members met early this morning at BSAR headquarters with plans to go forth and hopefully find. Excited still because of at the recovery of Evan two days ago. The Pro 4 VideoRay ROV spent hours today operated by Crossmon underneath ice searching for Sally Stone in many directions at the mouth of the Kisaralik River off of the Kuskokwak slough and below where Evan was recovered. Lots of area was covered in 160 foot distances down the slough and with the 260 foot tether attached to the ROV and an additional 60 feet of sonar search, many areas were looked at more than once. The Blueview sonar sweeps an area 130 degrees in width and 20 degrees in height making searching efficient for both the bottom of the riverbed and while returning to the ice hole, below the ice.

We also had invited elder Eddie Noratak of Akiachak to assist in possible search locations as he was instrumental in pointing out the general area where Evan was located and the way the Kuskokwak slough behaves. We at BSAR appreciate his knowledge and wisdom. We also had elder Henry Tikiun of Atmautluak assist us with his traditional knowledge and advice. We always have a willing ear for direction from our treasured elders.

Later after arriving back at BSAR headquarters at the end of the day, without locating Stone, we met with the family of Evan who expressed gratitude and happiness of his recovery. We all hugged and cried with the family and accepted their thankfulness. But this is what we do for them. Something that we hope in the future if anything happens to us personally, we can be brought home too and to do God’s work. Also during this time, we all hoped and prayed that in the future,  we can deliver this message to everyone lost in our area. To bring everyone home…..

We at BSAR are asking now for support letters from the entire Y-K Delta with our 56 villages and other entities interested elsewhere to ask the State of Alaska to provide funds for the Pro 4 VideoRay for search and recovery efforts in our area. We believe this apparatus is the best “Up to date” tool that will assist us in recovering our loved ones in a timely manner. We have been utilizing drag bars and cutting trenches in the ice to recover people for many years which has been labor intensive and takes many days and many people to accomplish. We need the technology to assist us in providing faster recovery and discovery of our loved ones to bring them back home. If we had this technology and apparatus at the beginning of this search, we would have accomplished this already. If you are willing to provide a “letter of support” to BSAR receiving the Pro 4 VideoRay, please mail to our address or fax to our phone number in Bethel.

We will be searching tomorrow with Crossmon and his ROV for the majority of the day….But he will be leaving Saturday evening, back home to Minnesota, where he has been missed. But we understand that his loving family will be glad to have him back home and we thank them for allowing him to come and help us in our efforts.