67-Year-Old Rescued Near Shelter Cove After Getting Sick on the Lost Coast Trail
Shelter Cove firefighters prep their ATV for the rescue. [Photo from Cheryl Antony]
“He got sick almost the first day,” Antony said. “He was vomiting for five days.” The man became increasingly dehydrated. Neither of the other two hikers were sick so they didn’t believe he had food poisoning. They were unsure of the cause of the illness that made him grow progressively weaker.
The two women reached the emergency call box located at Big Black Sands this afternoon and called for help, telling the dispatcher, ‘He just can’t make it the rest of the way,” Antony said.
Around 3:08 p.m., Shelter Cove Fire was dispatched Code 3 to rescue the dehydrated man off of Black Sands Beach.
“We could see him way down there,” she told us. “He was barely putting one foot after another. He was really glad to see our ATV.”
The patient was taken by ambulance to the Jerold Phelps Community Hospital in Garberville where he is expected to recover.
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Just a comment: The call for help was made from the emergency call box at Black Sands Beach, where there is no cell service
Sound familiar???? WE NEED EMERGENCY CALLS BOXES on Shelter Cove Road and Briceland Road for that very reason
Please someone help us . It could be a matter of life or death
Cheryl Antony
Shelter Cove Fire
The emergency call box at Black Sands Beach was installed by BLM on federal public land.
It would take a whole different system to have call boxes installed on county roads.
Good luck. They are needed in areas where there is no cell service. Start petitioning the County.
Wow…great ending to this rescue effort by Shelter Cove Fire (once again)! I am working with the Humboldt County Association of Governments (HCAOG) on a project to investigate if we can have access to “highway” call boxes. As it turns out, there is less demand for those anymore because there is much better cell reception along the highways (even if it’s not 100% coverage) than there is on our rural roads. It seems to me that we have a good case and I know my colleagues on HCAOG support me. Stay tuned.
Good news!
Yes! We need pay phones in the many local areas that have no cell service.
I have been told that if you make a 911 call out there where there’s no cell service, it goes up to satellite. If would be good to have that confirmed or denied.
Cell phones do not have the capability to communicate with satellites.
False.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/turn-your-iphone-or-android-smartphone-into-a-satellite-phone/
Cell phones do not have the capability to communicate with satellites. A $500 add-on mentioned in that article does. I fail to see how those are conflicting pieces of information.
i was wondering too if you have to get a sat plan before you can use the device. the article didnt say anything about a plan but you know how it goes sometimes
answered my own question
Bivystick – Satellite Communicator
$349.99.$349.99 from Bivy
Simple satellite communication – Bivystick turns your phone into a satellite communication device. No contracts, no activation
you can even buy a sat phone for less than 450 brand new
Starlink, a satellite based global internet provider by Space-x, is planning on beginning service within the next few months.
Do you oppose 5G?
I’ve read elsewhere that even if no cell service, one can still send texts. Anyone know for sure?
I heard someone can now text 911. Not sure about no cell service and texting but I think so.
No. Dispatch centers are not set up for texts.
Sometimes if the cell signal is too weak to complete a call a text MAY go thru…no guarantee and you still need some slight cell signal.
Well, yes, as I found out myself while visiting friends last week — yes, you can “send” texts when there’s no cell service, but they actually don’t go anywhere until you get your phone to a place that has sufficient service, juice, whatever it is, to transmit the message you wrote 10 minutes or 10 hours or 10 days ago. So if there’s really no service at all where you are, and you can’t get to a place with some service, the text just stays stored in the invisible universe until you can. It takes less power, juice, or whatever that stuff is to send a text than a voice call, so you may be able to get emergency help with a text when you can’t from a phone, as long as there’s some of that stuff in the air. At least that’s how I understand it. Am I right?
If you have 1 or 2 bars you can text but verbally not. It takes less power to send a text than to make a call
Folks:
If you have “no” cell service, nothing goes through, period. If you have weak cell service, text messages go through easier than phone calls, because of something called “bandwidth”.
” ‘phone, ” or telephone, or voice, uses more bandwidth than a text message, so in an area where the radio signal is weak, a voice call might not go through, but a text might.
As far as call boxes using satellite, no, they don’t. Call boxes use a (usually) lower radio frequency than cell service, so that helps a little. Also, they were tested from a specific area, to a specific area, to ensure connectivity. Different deal than walking around with your cell phone.
Amateur Radio might be a good idea to look into for remote areas with no cell coverage. However, don’t depend on whatever whacker might be on the other end of the transmitter, but develop a network of friends and family who use Amateur Radio.
Coverage can be pretty extensive, but to use it effectively requires a lot of knowledge and practice.
Any cell phone whether or not is activated with cell service can reach 911. All it needs is a charged battery, and be able to see a tower. So, keep one of your old cell phones charged and ready to use, even if it is not activated. It will still work for emergency calls.
It still needs to be able to see a cell tower, so in some spots it will still will not work.
If you live in a location where you might have an emergency, where there is no cell service, you should consider a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB). They work off satellites and can be used worldwide.
https://www.rei.com/learn/expert-advice/personal-locator-beacons.html
But know that some of those beacons like Spot have their response centers in Asia and can take a full day or so to contact authorities in the US. Also Spot doesnt confirm anyone recieved your sos message whereas De Lorme In Reach does confirm and has a US based response center. Some are way better than others and all are pricey..
Ernie, will that work for 2G and 3G phones? We had our 19 yo 2g finally kicked off the Verizon towers, worked like a charm till then and 36 hours of battery life. I will keep the battery charged if so. Thanks!
Oh, the poor man! Thanks for plucking him out of his misery. This could easily have ended really badly.
Call boxes go directly to 911.
We used to have pay phones in Briceland and Whitethorn, but they kept being vandalized.
If he got sick on the first day, why did they not return to Petrolia?
Probably assumed it was just a mild stomach bug and it would go away soon, or really didn’t want to ruin his family’s trip.