Early Saturday evening, December 20th, the Curry County Sheriff’s dispatch received a 911 call just after 7:00pm, from 88 year old Bertie Pearcy of Harbor.
With very poor cell reception, Sheriff’s dispatch was able to determine that Bertie needed help, that she was lost in the middle of nowhere.
Dispatch then received another 911 call transferred by the Brookings Police Department, from Crescent City resident Steve Pearcy, who reported that his mother had called and told him she had driven up the South Bank of the Chetco River, got stuck, and that his mother had started walking and didn’t know where she was.
Dispatch was able to extract a Latitude and Longitude from Bertie’s cell phone and then paged out Sheriff’s Search and Rescue.
Members of Search and Rescue arrived on scene and started searching the area. Bertie was quickly located by Search and Rescue on the 290 spur off of the 1107 Road.
According to Search and Rescue, Bertie was wet, cold when located, and was unable to get back to her feet after she had fallen and couldn’t get up.
Search and Rescue was able to get Bertie up and into their vehicle before driving Bertie to meet with a Cal Ore Life Flight Ambulance.
Bertie’s vehicle was located by Search and Rescue with a volunteer from Harbor Fire Department, a couple of miles from where she was found on a dead-end road and were able to recover the vehicle before driving it back out of the area.
