Nadia Bloom Search

I spent a good bit of time this weekend and took off work Monday to help search for Nadia Bloom. It is almost impossible to describe how happy I was to hear she had been found safe Tuesday Morning. There is a lot on this story at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-nadia-bloom-missing-20100412,0,72482.story . James King, went out solo, and was able to essentially go straight towards her - an absolutely wonderful thing. Being involved in the search I had a great insight to what was going on, and believe that there are plenty of things that can be learned. I truly feel that this is important as we always need to learn and make notes of what was learned for the next search.

Here are some items that I noted - in my line of work all ideas are good ideas (I'm a professor so I analyze), some just better than others - so these should be taken as they are given as possible constructive ideas.

1. Local counties should keep a list of pre-approved search volunteers. This would allow them to be able to bring manpower to the scene of a search quickly. I say this as I saw the crews working incredibly hard - but I also saw that if they had more manpower they could have covered more ground. Because everyone was working so hard doing the job at hand - there was little time left over to bring in and coordinate a volunteer activity.

2. Explore all possibilities of what could have happened, however improbable. When I talked to some of the folks in charge I was convinced she was in area 13 (the heavy swamp) - I was told many times she would not have wandered into the swamp, but my gut told me that this is what happened. My theory was she took the trail leading west from the pond, got distracted, disoriented and ended up wandering into the swamp.

Here is a map of  what I thought had happened and what happened in the search. The rescue team leaders did listen to my logic and were prepared to search this area.


View Nadia Bloom Search in a larger map (click to see notes on icons)

3. Never give up hope. I guess this somehow goes without saying. But it also goes hand in hand with have faith.

4. You've got to go into the thick stuff. This is from my experience with quite a few searches. Every time the person was lost in the "thick stuff" - in the case of this one the thick stuff was REALLY think. This was some truly challenging swamp.

5. Also huge thanks to Jim King - sometimes the extraordinary efforts of a single individual make all the difference in the world. Never be afraid to be that individual.

6. One thing done very well was the "safety zone" - where the local PTA put out signs with a bottled water that said "Nadia We Love You Drink this and Stay Here" I requested one additional item - that they put whistles on the signs and add "Blow Whistle". For searching large areas of woods - this a really good idea to have these located in safe areas of the search zone.Here is one;

7. Also if you notice from these pictures the vast majority of the searchers were wearing camouflage. Come on people this is a search and rescue - the objective is to be seen, we should be wearing orange vests. I did note that many of the S&R teams DID have reflective blazers.


This is not meant as a criticism of the teams out there. What I saw was an incredibly dedicated group of people doing everything that they could do with what they had. The swamp in the area 13 is some of the toughest thickest anywhere - searching - I came across one big Water Moccasin nest, and quite a few gators (one big).

All love and good wishes to the wonderful Bloom family. I am so glad this had a happy ending and I want to make sure the next time this occurs it also has a happy ending.

Additionally Here is My Call to Action to people I know and Myself

- United States Orienteering Federation (USOF) - To Create a national list, easily accessible. of top orienteers (and adventure racers) that are willing to perform search and rescue as volunteers. These are the people I personally want looking.

- Currently the web site SearchAndRescue.com is parked as an advertising site. Take this domain (or another similar domain) and put up real information that can help the public in knowing what they can do in these types of situations. Best practices for searchers and helpers, setting up of safe zones, etc...