YWN has confirmed that the highly trained search and rescue team from Rockland Chaveirim who deployed on Friday morning have located both of the missing special needs boys at Sam’s Point. They are B”H both alive and in good conditon. After more than 17 hours of Hatzolah and other agencies, Rockland Chaveirim located the boys less than two hours after entering the area with their team.
Catskills Hatzolah must be publicly commended for their tireless work of hundreds of volunteers combing the area.
Rockland Chaveirim Search and Rescue Team is a group of around 100 volunteers who practice and train every Sunday all year on dangerous mountain terrain in Bear Mountain and Harriman State Park, as well as the Catskills. They have extensive equipment and training. In fact, thanks to Rockland Chaveirim, all members at the Command Center were able to have internet service on Friday when they arrived, thanks to satellite communication and StarLink Internet.
Rockland Chaveirim was called by the family last night, but due to a chain of command issue, they were unable to deploy until Friday morning. Bichasdei Hashem, they deployed and were successful just an hour later. The NY State Forest Rangers are the most trained in such incidents, but there are only around 20 Rangers in the entire area, when a group of hundreds of searchers are actually needed.
Rabbi Abe Friedman, the Chaplain of the Ulster County Sheriff’s Department expressed his sincere gratitude to all law enforcement agencies on the scene, as well as Ulster County Sheriff’s who were utilizing a drone with infared technology to try and locate the missing boys.
EARLIER POST
The massive search for two missing special needs children in the Catskills is continuing on Friday morning.
Hundreds of trained emergency personnel are combing the mountain terrain at Sam’s Point / Ice Cave Mountain. The boys are missing since around 5:00PM Thursday afternoon. Making matters difficult, a heavy rain storm passed through the area early Friday morning.
The search is being coordinated by the NY State Forest Rangers and the NY State Police, and Catskills Hatzolah. A massive team of 75 highly trained search and rescue volunteers from Rockland Chaveirim arrived from Monsey and have already deployed into the forest.
Catskill Coordinator Yeedle Feig spoke to YWN and pleaded with people not to show up at the area to try and help. “While we appreciate the concerns of the public, these are not city streets where anyone can assit in helping located a missing person. This is dangerous terrain, as our teams are no longer on marked trails,” Feig said.
“The NY State Police is manning multiple check points, and unless you are specifically requested to respond by the State Police or Catskills Hatzolah, do not come here. You will not be allowed anywhere near the search zone. You can do your part by saying Tehillim”, Feig added.
Hatzolah has deployed dozens of ATV’s in the forest, with the NY State Police utilizing K-9 dogs. Catskills Hatzolah has launched their infrared-equipped drone, which can spot anything emitting heat, as well as other search and rescue technology.
Family members tell YWN that the names for Tehillim are Yehuda ben Chaya Gittel and Yoel ben Hudis Shaidel.
THIS STORY WAS FIRST PUBLISHED ON THE CATSKILL SCOOP STATUS
UPDATE 3:30AM: The search is continuing for two missing special needs boys, both around 20 years old, who went missing in Sam’s Point / Ice Cave Mountain. They were last seen at around 5:00PM Thursday afternoon.
Around 200 volunteers from Hatzolah, Chaveirim and other organizations are assisting the NY State Forest Rangers and NY State Police in the search.
Hatzolah has deployed dozens of ATV’s in the forest, with the NY State Police utilizing K-9 dogs. Catskills Hatzolah has launched their infrared-equipped drone, which can spot anything emitting heat, as well as other search and rescue technology.
The terrain in the area is dangerous, and the area is under severe fog, with visibility very bad. a heavy rain storm is expected to pass through the area at around 4:00AM.
Family members tell YWN that the names for Tehillim are Yehuda ben Chaya Gittel and Yoel ben Hudis Shaidel.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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15 Responses
מי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ
May they succeed and bring about good news.
Have these volunteers been schooled in the NY yeshiva system?
Couldn’t you have managed to report this good news, and even commend Chaveirim, without knocking Hatzoloh. Feh!
הודו ל׳ כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו
The self serving nature of this post is not appropriate. Does Chaverim want us to know they’re better than hatzoloh??
BH! At least they are quiet about it and do things “under the radar”
Chain of command issue?
That is nuts, in emergent situations there should be no red tape, and there should be no territorial or hierarchy discussions, those are for another day.
I wonder, what the chain of command issue was.
I don’t see any where in the article where one agency is putting down another agency. Comparing Hatzalah and Chaverim of RC is apples and oranges. chavarim of RC is trained for search and rescue not for treating the injured. while Hatzalah is trained to help the injured
If this terrain is so dangerous, why the heck would you hike in with some SN children?
I’d like to learn more about Hatzallah’s chain of command. One should even violate Yom Kippur to save a life, so what is the story with Hatzallah in this case? There should be a thorough review.
Every group had to be Deployed with a Forest ranger. עין שם in the chaveirim interview on kol mavasar 114
Mi Kiamcha indeed! I was in a Non-Jewish area when 2 special needs boys got lost & thei
Re:
The answer to your question is no.
Because if this story is true, that they did not allow Chaverim on the scene up until today morning., when everybody knows Chaverim has highly trained unit of over 100 volunteers specializing the certain Rescue Training every sunday.
Hatzala of Catskills should have known better and not let their ego get in the way, Just because they took one training this summer how to perform and conduct a search….
While the volunteers are angels but the command failed! They put many people through Agony when it was not necessary, at least should have called the professionals and increase the chances of finding these poor kids sooner.
So it’s not about mocking anyone, it’s about exposing corruption, let the pressure rise to the top they should learn for next time never to repeat this mistake again. If agencies can come together to help and reach out a step aside, in areas that there are others that are better, we have a problem… thank God they changed their mind and didn’t wait another 3 days…
Everybody remembers the story a group was lost in bear mountains, and due to the difficult weather at night the State Police called off the search for the night. What the Rangers and state police did not know, that Chaverim are trained better, they went completely from The Other Side of the Mountain where there was no police presence and within hours midnight they marched down from the other side of the mountain with the Lost kids. That’s professionalism! That’s Chaverim of Rockland search and rescue unit!
Chain of command issue blaz this is my turf, stay away from it/
SN children, who often have issues with processing and handling change, should NEVER have been taken on a hike like this, especially with a forecast of bad weather. The staff of this cam nearly had blood on their hands