Posted on 12/20/2006 2:29:43 PM PST by llevrok
Related Content Fight over mandatory beacons renews Story Published: Dec 20, 2006 at 11:08 AM PST
Story Updated: Dec 20, 2006 at 11:32 AM PST By Anita Kissee and KATU Web Staff Watch the video MOUNT HOOD, Ore. - As the rescue effort continues on Mount Hood, so do the costs, which some critics are saying is way too much.
Sheriff Joe Wampler with the Hood River County Sheriff's Office has said all along that he is not looking at the cost of the rescue, he is looking for the men. One of them, 48-year-old Kelly James, was found dead in a snow cave over the weekend. The two others, 37-year-old Brian Hall and 36-year-old Jerry Cooke, remain missing.
Rosie O'Donnell and her co-hosts kicked off 'The View' Tuesday with the hot topic of the missing climbers on Mount Hood.
Rosie O'Donnell: "I read in the papers that over $2.5 million the search has cost so far to find these three men."
Jacque Reid, Guest Co-Host: "Here they are, they knew the storm was coming and they still opted to go out and who should pay the cost?"
Rosie O'Donnell: "What warrants 27 helicopters and 1,000 people looking? I just don't understand."
Joy Behar: "Send this team over to New Orleans and fix that situation."
Wampler has poured his heart, soul and county's manpower into finding the three climbers and resents the implications that the money would be better spent helping Katrina victims.
"I just want to reach out and grab her neck," he said. "I mean, literally. This is not stupid money. This is important money. This is about people's lives."
At $6,500 a day, many may question the cost of the elaborate rescue effort, but Wampler said the bill is misleading. His crews would be working anyway and 90 percent of the rescuers are volunteers. It is not even costing the military extra money because the mission is being tagged as training.
"We can either spend our time in a simulator or a simulated environment or we can get the best experience in a real world situation like this," said Capt. Mike Braibish with the Oregon National Guard.
"As long as people are climbing mountains, there needs to be people to help them," said Darren Stone, owner of Climb Max.
Stone said that as long as climbers keep coming to Oregon, the state should keep catering to them.
"Kilamanjaro is the most climbed mountain, but more people get on top of Mount Hood," he said.
Economic numbers do not pinpoint how much climbers spend while visiting the mountain, but in general $800 million is spent in our forests every year.
On a side note, Oregon is one of just a few states that can make you pay for your own rescue if you are reckless, and even then it is only $500. The law is the result of three college students who got lost on Mount Hood in 1995, only to be found safe in a tent after $10,000 was spent to search for them. It has only been enforced one time - for a boater. We are told this case would not apply because the men were prepared.
You are quite perceptive.
Rosie is a bitter bull-dyke.
I'm sure she would understand if she was the one missing. How would it feel to be lost, cold, hungry, and know that no one is going to look for me because it costs too much? I would like "the rotund one" to look into the faces of the families of those missing and ask her moronic questions.
Heartless? Perhaps.
We all put some price on human life. If you support everyone having infinite access to the treasury every time there's a problem the country will go bankrupt in a week.
I'm surprised Rosie's bleeding heart liberal crowd will buy this though; they don't think rationally.
After all, if someone's heart stops, the paramedics make a reasonable effort to continue CPR to try and bring you back. But at a certain point they stop and say, we've done what we can, now we must declare the patient legally dead.
Rosie, if you were the one missing, no money would be wasted on a search.
Perhaps they died knowing they won a Darwin Award.
Note to Self: Never Climb a mountain after a Blizzard Warning has been posted.
Ms. O'Donnell would never go out of here way to help any one of us; however, if you or I pulled her cellulite-scaped carcass out of a flaming deli or ice cream shoppe, I wouldn't expect her to say thanks.
Re post #64- please stop.
I see, on top of everything else, the pig can't count either. It was 2 Black Hawks and a Chinook. I'm pretty sure that doesn't add up to 27. And there was hardly 1000 people looking for them. What a useless waste of air that scumbag is.
I have no problem making people pay after the fact, but as a volunteer firefightet/EMT, I don't think assistance should be withheld from anyone for any reason.
I was angry at first too. Why didn't they take a tracking device? Why did they go at a time when the weather could turn ugly on a dime? They made mistakes, but they're human beings. It's such an insult to even bring money into the equation. If nothing else, I hope it serves as a lesson to all other climbers not to be so haughty that they can fool with mother nature like that. But they are still human lives and there should be a rescue attempt to save them, no matter what the cost.
Dean Wormer - 1978
John Kerry voters....
Good question for the embryonic stem cell lobby.
how tolerant and diverse of her.
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