Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 25 June 2019

GPS, special maps and the wild: Tech helps searchers zero in

ital maps so searchers can
view them wherever they
are.
Government officials are
looking at adopting new
technology, including in
Hawaii. Most large search-
es are done by volunteers
because many places
don’t do enough of them
to keep official teams on
staff.
Maui firefighters used hand-
drawn maps as they looked
for Eller over the first three
days of her going missing.
That’s because the trail sys-
tem in the Makawao Forest
Reserve where she got lost
doesn’t appear on Google
Maps. County officials also
overlaid aerial searches
onto a satellite map.
Yatsushiro said the Maui Fire
Department would adopt
similar technology used by
volunteers — who kept the
This April 17, 2017, photo provided by Michael St. John shows search and rescue volunteer and SARTopo creator Matt Jacobs, left, search going after the first
and search and rescue volunteers Mike Russo, center, and Bob Gehlen, right, in Sierraville, California, as they consult a SARTopo three days — if firefighters
map while making plans to search for a missing aircraft. found it helpful after study-
Associated Press ing available options.
By AUDREY McAVOY wilderness for missing peo- teams use digital maps. already been searched Mike St. John, volunteer
Associated Press ple. That could mean anything and what still needed to be leader of the search and
HONOLULU (AP) — Yesenia “It kind of led us to search from basic Google Maps to checked. rescue unit at the Marin
D’Alessandro loaded a outside of that high-priority specialized software called Matt Jacobs, a California County Sheriff’s Office in
GPS tracking app on her area to where we actually SARTopo, which California software engineer and California, said GPS track-
cellphone and trudged found Amanda,” her fa- search and rescue experts search volunteer, devel- ing of where people have
into a remote Hawaii for- ther, John Eller, said. used to advise Maui volun- oped SARTopo more than looked is “really critical.”
est, joining more than 100 More U.S. teams are turn- teers from afar. eight years ago after no- “It’s about using GPS maps
other volunteers looking for ing to the technology that Search organizers in Hawaii ticing teams struggling to and utilizing GPS to make
a missing hiker. combines cellphone GPS asked volunteers to down- match details on wilderness sure you’re hitting your as-
She climbed through mud- with digital maps detail- load a $3.99 app called maps drawn by different signment,” said St. John,
dy ravines, crossed streams ing cliffs, caves, waterways GPS Tracks, which draws agencies. who was among those
and faced steep drop-offs and other hard-to-search lines on a map showing What started as a hobby in California advising the
in the thick tangle of trees terrain. It helps manage where a user has walked. project has grown in popu- Maui team.
and ferns where her col- the work of large numbers GPS data revealed that larity in the past couple of St. John said his search and
lege friend Amanda Eller of volunteers. searchers were covering years to become Jacobs’ rescue experts are not set
vanished last month. The system showed when the same areas repeatedly full-time job. Search and up to offer the same type
“You have to search every- Hawaii searchers had cov- as heavy foliage or natural rescue teams from Oregon of help to others that they
where,” said D’Alessandro, ered a 2-mile (3-kilometer) barriers like cliffs blocked to North Carolina have gave to Maui but are trying
who flew in from Maryland. radius around Eller’s car. their path, Berquist said. started using it. to figure out how to do that
“You have to go down After that, searchers sent a Organizers started drop- Searchers used it in March in the future.
to that stream bed, even helicopter farther into the ping digital pins on volun- as 100 volunteers fanned Berquist, the Hawaii search
though you don’t want to. forest, where they spotted teers’ maps to give them out in a Northern California leader, visited California this
She could be down there.” the 35-year-old physical targets, pushing volunteers forest, eventually finding week to talk with St. John
D’Alessandro and others therapist and yoga instruc- to cover more ground and 8-year-old Leia Carrico and about how Marin County’s
gathered GPS data of the tor. making the search more her 5-year-old sister, Caro- volunteer program works.
ground they covered, and “We never would have accurate. line, who got lost near their He aims to set up some-
organizers put it on a spe- pushed out if we hadn’t When searchers ran into home. thing similar back in Maui.
cialized digital map to help searched the reasonable cliffs or pools of water, Ber- Last month, teams used it After technology helped
better understand where area first. There’s no rea- quist had them place digi- to help locate a 67-year- find Eller, her father is do-
to look next. son to start reaching further tal pins on their maps. Or- old hiker who had veered nating software and other
The technology led vol- and further out of the box ganizers then sent drone pi- off a trail in a state park equipment to Berquist’s
unteers to Eller, who was if we hadn’t completely lots or rappelling experts to north of San Francisco. A team, developing a search
found next to a waterfall searched the box,” said the cliffs and divers to the California Highway Patrol and rescue app and giving
and survived for 17 days in Chris Berquist, a volunteer water. airplane using an infrared $10,000 to support Hawaii
the Maui forest by eating search leader. Organizers fed the GPS camera spotted the man. searches and rescues.
plants and drinking stream David Kovar, advocacy data to the California SARTopo also is becoming “We saw a huge need. And
water. Her dramatic rescue director for the nonprofit team, which used SARTopo available as a cellphone we feel so lucky with every-
shows how emerging tech- National Association for to overlay it on topographi- app, which will make it thing everybody did for us,
nology helps search teams Search and Rescue, said cal maps, allowing every- even easier to directly con- so we’re looking to give
more efficiently scour the most search and rescue one to see what areas had nect the GPS data with dig- back,” John Eller said.q