PANAMA CITY BEACH Local officials plan to use new unmanned water-rescue vehicles to improve safety along the Gulf of Mexico.
With tourist season approaching, Gulf Coast State College held a joint training exercise on Wednesday with members of Panama City Beach Fire Rescue and its beach safety division to teach first responders how to operate unmanned water rescue vehicles.
Called EMILY short for Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard the crafts are equipped with sonar technology, can skim across the water at about 35 mph and are about the size of a small canoe. These devices are not to be seen as a replacement for a lifeguard because they re not, said Wil Spivey, beach safety director for the Beach. They are an additional tool that we have available now to use as part of our program.
Teamwork triumphs over trouble
The Star
Preparation met opportunity last week off Cape San Blas, when a team of first responders plucked a group of longline grouper fishermen off a boat sinking in rough waters on Christmas Eve morning.
No trips to hospitals were needed for the captain and four crew members of the
Miss Adley, following the rescue Thursday morning, Dec. 24 by members of South Gulf County Volunteer Fire Department’s water safety and rescue team of first responders.
Monte Lucas, who heads up the team, said the call came in from Gulf County dispatch sometime after 7 a.m. (the Facebook post lists 7:42 a.m. as when the call came in) that a disabled fishing boat was stranded about a-mile-and-one-half off of the Stump Hole, near the elbow of Cape San Blas, and taking on water with five people aboard.