As I looked out over the debris field I had a sense of how heart wrenching the whole experience was, yet I found the scene one of inspiration and hope. There were literally hundreds of people working in unison with one purpose in mind, to save lives and bring closure for all the families and friends of OSO. It was in some strange way a tranquil image and I had the sense that “now I know why I have been doing K9 search and rescue for the last 13 years, this is what I was supposed to do all along .” Suzanne Elshult, SCVSAR/K9 Handler and Airscent Lead

On March 22, 2014 a catastrophic failure of the hillside above the small community just east of OSO in my home county of Snohomish in Washington State caused almost 10 million cubic yards of dirt to plunge down and across the Stillaguamish river. A fast-moving wave of mud and trees ended up taking 43 precious lives and became a life-changing event for me, my search and rescue dog Keb and many of my K9 colleagues. Over 100  volunteer SAR K9 teams from seven different states  deployed as first responders. This event was and still is a tragedy of epic proportions and our hearts go out to the families that have been left behind. We can only hope that our participation contributed a small measure of comfort. This is how one of my K9 field support members summarized our team experience:

For the Snohomish County Search and Rescue K9 Team, it was the worst of times and the best of times. We were shocked by the devastation and loss; we were energized and gratified by our participation. We saved  no one, but recovered a measure of comfort for families left behind. We learned and grew as a team, and were humbled by  thanks from our community.
Guy Mansfield, SCVSAR K9 Field Support

Our team pulled together seamlessly to support this mission. The hard work we had put into creating a strong team culture anchored in clear core values, high standards and a high quality training program paid off. We all rallied around our mission of saving lives and finding the missing.

We continued to deal with the aftermath of our OSO Landslide experience as a team. We worked with the larger K9 community to explore “lessons learned.” We did research, surveyed and hosted discussions with many of the K9 teams that deployed. We wrote  articles, developed videos, slide presentations and reports. We hosted regional trainings. We made a commitment to  prepared when and if another disaster strikes.

I am proud of our team and honored we were able to contribute to some measure of closure for families left behind.

Please follow the links below to get a better understanding of our experience:

This video describes our K9 team experience at the OSO Landslide. You may need to scroll to the video titled 530 Slide Show: OSO K9 Slide Show

This article written by me and co-authored by Marcia Koenig was published in K9 Cop Magazine February/March 2015: Search and Rescue K-9 Lessons Learned from the OSO Landslide

This video features one of the regional trainings our K9 team put on for SAR Teams from the region that deployed on the Slide: K9 Regional Training

My Flipboard Magazine titled K9 SarYak includes a variety of articles pertaining to  the OSO/HW 530 Slide: http://flip.it/IuA8b