Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
MOAB — It's funny how more than a million people visit the Moab area every year to feel alone.
What's not funny is how many of them get hurt.
"With those numbers, you have to think some of those people are going to run into some problems," said Jim Webster, the commander of Grand County's search and rescue team.
Webster loves seeing people enjoying his backyard.
He just wishes they would be a little safer doing it, especially this year.
“We get a lot of people who come out here to hike, mountain bike, river raft, ride ATV’s, and sometimes a few of them get hurt and we get called,” said Webster.
The number of search and rescue calls for Grand County is up this summer.
The nine-year average for calls in June is 51. This year, they’ve had 58.
In July, the average number of rescue calls is 60. So far, this July, they’ve had 66 calls and the month is barely halfway through.
Most of those calls are because of the heat.
"This time of year, when it's hot, we like people to go out prepared for that. That might mean just going out in the morning and being done by 10 or 11 in the morning," said Webster.
With as many calls as they get, Grand County charges for search and rescue operations. Grand County doesn't have a set fee for each operation, but they determine their fees on a case-by-case basis.
It’s a way for the county to buy new equipment, maintain the equipment they have, and help keep the lights on at their facility.
“We would go out and rescue people who need help anyway. We have to,” said Webster. “We do this because we love to help people, and we want to help people, but this is also a way for us to keep things going.”
Arches and Canyonlands National Parks have also had plenty of heat-related rescues this year.
"A lot of our problems these days, we're getting calls at 3 in the afternoon because people start to hike at noon, and it's 104-degrees out, and people are doing a strenuous activity they may not be accustomed to doing,” said Mike Henry, the supervisory ranger at Arches.
“We just want to remind people to hike smart and be prepared. Carry plenty of water, some food, sunscreen, a cellphone, and maybe even a whistle just in case.”
Washington County's search and rescue team is also noticing more calls than normal, many of them because of the heat.
Utah and Summit counties, both of which received a high number of search and rescue calls, say so far this summer, their number of calls are about average.
Contributing: McKenzie Romero
