{"id":64,"date":"2012-03-27T04:22:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T04:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/100.42.52.148\/~klaaskid\/blog\/?p=64"},"modified":"2018-04-04T20:10:13","modified_gmt":"2018-04-05T03:10:13","slug":"sierra-lamar-anatomy-of-a-search-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/sierra-lamar-anatomy-of-a-search-day-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Lamar: Anatomy of a Search Day 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"U<\/span>nable to get away until 10:00 a.m. I fielded 17-phone calls, all related to the disappearance of Sierra LaMar, by the time I arrived at the search center at noon. Located about two miles from Sierra\u2019s Morgan Hill, CA home, Burnett Elementary School was generously provided to the search effort for at least the next several weeks by the local school board. \u00a0With access to an auditorium, administrative offices and classrooms that can be used for mapping, food & water storage, debriefing and quiet time, this is as ideal a search center as I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

KlaasKids Search and Rescue (SAR) Director Brad Dennis, and Dawn Davis from the Friendswood, TX based Laura Recovery Center were already dispatching volunteers in an effort to have the search center fully operational by 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning (3\/17\/12) when the first community searches will begin. I attempted to get the attendant volunteer leaders attention for a few moments, but quickly acknowledged the futility of herding cats. The apparent chaos of the moment was but an illusion. Brad and Dawn have been organizing volunteer searches together for more than a decade and don\u2019t waste a move.<\/p>\n

Before arriving I stopped at Carl\u2019s Jr. and picked up lunch for the three of us as well as Michelle Le\u2019s brother Michael and LaMar family friend Brian Miller.\u00a0 For some reason this case has captured the attention of local and national media, so I wasn\u2019t surprised to find a half dozen television microwave trucks dotting the parking lot when I arrived. On the other hand I was surprised that the reporters documented every moment of my lunch delivery. With tax the $6 combo meals came out to $6.66 each and I got some pretty bad indigestion about an hour after eating the burger. Sure hope that Isn\u2019t an omen.<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"After lunch and the volunteer meet and greet Brad, Michael and I went to scout some search locations. We arrived back at the search center close to 3:00 p.m. with preliminary assignments for at least half a dozen 8-member search teams. Morgan Hill is nestled at the base of the Diablo mountain range. The average elevation of the Diablo range is about 3,000 feet. A summit at over 2,300 feet is considered high, mainly because the range is mostly rolling grassland and plateaus, punctuated by sudden peaks. Canyons usually are 300\u2013400 feet deep and valleys are deeper but gentler. It is not the most inviting topography we have had the challenge of searching, but neither is it the most hostile. Wait! Diablo means devil. Sure hope that isn\u2019t an omen.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Michael Le, Dawn Davis, Brian Miller, Marcia Slacke, Brad Dennis<\/p><\/div>\n

At 5:00 p.m., as Sierra\u2019s parents Steve and Marlene met with our search management team, a bunch of Little Leaguers streamed by to play a game on the school\u2019s baseball diamond. Sierra is still missing, but I believe that we are getting to know and trust each other. This is always a trying time because we are all staring into an uncertain future seeing different shades of light at the end of the tunnel.<\/p>\n

The damned burger is still having its way with my digestive system. I think that I\u2019ll go watch the kids play baseball for a while. It\u2019s been a long day and I want to do something normal.<\/p>\n

Breaking news! The Giants beat the Yankees 43 to 31, proving the dominance of the West Coast yet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

nable to get away until 10:00 a.m. I fielded 17-phone calls, all related to the disappearance of Sierra LaMar, by the time I arrived at the search center at noon. Located about two miles from Sierra\u2019s Morgan Hill, CA home, Burnett Elementary School was generously provided to the search effort for at least the next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,175],"tags":[562,560,463,559,561],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missing-children","category-sierra-lamar","tag-carls-jr","tag-child-quest-international","tag-klaaskids-foundation","tag-laura-recovery-center","tag-sierra-lamar"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3387,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/3387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.klaaskids.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}