GALESBURG, Illinois--With all of this snow hundreds of people can end up stranded. That's where the Knox County Snowmobile Search and Rescue team comes in.
“This is when we do our work so why not practice at the same time,” said Pat Hennenfent. Pat is the director of the search and rescue team.Once a year, the team gets together to train for the worst case scenario in the bitter cold.
“The whole idea of this is to learn from it,” said Pat.
They work together as a team with local first responders to be better prepared to rescue stranded or injured people during snowstorm.
“Normally we get told ‘you guys are crazy its way too cold’ so then I ask them ‘don't you do calls when it's cold?’ Well absolutely so that's what we are doing today,” said Pat.
“It's important to me to be able to come out here and support the people that are supporting my community in this way,” said Christina Frost. Frost is a flight nurse with OSF in Knox County. On some calls she is the one the rescue team is working closely with.
For all of the first responders, the cold can be their worst enemy.
“I got a call from the sheriff's office, 9-1-1, asking us to go out and do a rescue I looked at the wind conditions I looked at the visibility and I had to tell them no because my teams safety has to come first,” said Pat.
If the team isn't safe, no one would've made it to this 'victim' during practice.
“That we are staying safe that we are warm that we've got the supplies that we need because we can't do any good to anyone if we ourselves aren't able to provide those things,” said Frost.
Every situation gives them an opportunity to find a new and better way to get things done.
“They get in there and they have to quickly assess what happened and what's going on and what they need to do,” said Pat.
