HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) — Search and rescue drills are happening this week in Hampton Roads, with first responders and agencies across Virginia taking part this week at the 18th annual Steven Todd Dooley Search and Rescue Forum, with Coast Guard Sector Virginia and the Port of Virginia Maritime Incident Response Team as hosts.
“It’s a week-long training evolution where we bring together different agencies from around the state to work on the fundamentals of not only search and rescue, but [also] response in the maritime,” said Jennifer Stockwell, commander of Coast Guard Sector Virginia.
Bill Burket, in his 18th year, actually started the training program, and this year, 37 agencies, 36 boats and 151 first responders are taking part.
Everyone is there to network and train together and, on this particular day, they watched a search-and-rescue demonstration from a Elizabeth City, North Carolina-based Coast Guard helicopter.
“So we saw the helicopter lower the rescue basket down to a Coast Guard small boat,” Stockwell said, “And that small boat was stationed here in Portsmouth. And then we also saw the rescue swimmer deploy as a free fall into the water and execute a rescue and then be hoisted back up. Those are all different types of rescue techniques we can use in a different variety of distress situations.”
“They bring a lot to the plate, as you saw there — their boats, their helicopters and even their personnel that have been with us throughout the week,” Burket said. “So, by having the first responders available to network and train together, we ensure that our sea lanes are maintain. It’s important that we help to ensure that all of our critical infrastructure is protected.”
Stockwell said the Hampton Roads community supports first responders in the region.”
“And we are ready,” Stockwell said. “We are ready to respond.”
