By Anaam Alruwaidhi, Reporter
Many people who have gone missing or drowned in lakes around the Omaha area have been rescued by fire department’s divers.
The Yutan Fire Department has been established for firefighting, fire prevention, and emergency medical services, as well as water rescue. The divers’ mission is to protect the property and lives of citizens in Omaha and Yutan area.
The staff provides emergency water rescue and recovery service for missing people in the nearby river and the surrounding lakes.
The team interviews witnesses first before they start searching by helicopters and planes. Then, a team of divers use a boat and look for the missing person under a lake using a technique called Sonar, said Joe Vandenack, the president of Yutan fire department.
“Sonar is basically sending out waves to come back to a receptor, and depending on what bounces back creates an image. It’s totally a flat image and you can only see little bumps, then you can say if this is a person or something else,” Vandenack said.
Sonar improvements provide much better imaging than older equipment used in the past. Also, different types of Sonar allow broader and more thorough searches.
Nevertheless, fire departments divers still find difficulties while they search in lakes although all the new techniques have been invented to rescue people who have drowned.
“It’s really hard to dive in the lake because the water is so dark there, and it creates lack of visibility,” said Bader Abughaith, a diver in Yutan department.
The divers will have more difficulties diving since winter is coming. However, they use cold water suits which help to keep them warm. Night fall and some environmental conditions like water pollution have a negative impact on obstructing the divers as well.
In the future, experts believe that technology that detects any scent rising from a decaying body underwater will keep improving and will help the divers while searching.
