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Funeral Set For Greenwood Co. Flood Victim
Rescue teams found the body of Joshua Smith, 20, of Yates Center early Tuesday morning. Reporter: KAKE NewsEmail Address: news@kake.com |
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Its so sad that these postings are used for such adolesent behavior. The constant slams back and forth as to who did what or what was not done.. JUST STOP. Let it all go. Be greatfull it was not your child or your family and save your opinions. None of the badgering can bring him back or change the outcome...
For all those people posting comments with rude things to say about the kids in the vehicle and emergency workers... just stop. They were young and we all were young once and remember making decisions that may or may not have been right. As far as rescue/ems and police workers... lay off. They did as much as they could without putting themselves in danger. Respect the family. Sorry for their loss.
(continued) bigger idiots to those that actually volunteer their time away from their familys and actually try to make a difference in someones' life that they've never met. Remember, this was out in a rural area, so I'm pretty sure that the first several groups of responding personal were not paid departments, nor have the oppertunity to train every few days in a varity of different settings to be able to do what paid departments are capable of, even as far as equiptment and resources. Not saying volunteer departments aren't as good as any other, just that it's a LOT harder to do the same things as a full time department like most of you from cities talking down on the fire/ems personel. Volunteers in kansas make up 73% of all fire/ems staff in the state of Kansas, so next time you travel, more than 75% of ANYWHERE you go outside a metro will not be paid personel, since a lot higher numbers are on paid departments with adequate staffing.
Maybe if anyone has had any education in fire/ems/rescue, one of the very FIRST things you are taught is Scene Saftey. If the scene is safe, then go on in, but if it's not, Risk VS Benefit. What good would stranded rescuers do if they too needed to be rescued? It wouldn't do ANYONE any good to have a bunch of people in the middle of the night somewhere downstream in the trees. Has anyone thought of WHY the helicopter did not come? Heres an AMAZING thought, what was the weather doing? I'm pretty sure it was fairly crappy weather at the time, you know, with the heavy rains and lightning. Sure, maybe YOU would've flown the helicopter in that position, maybe got lucky and not have it crash into someones house and kill whoever is inside. Once again, RISK vs BENEFIT. Whoever wants to sit around and ***** about what they should've been doing, I challenge you to go out and volunteer on a fire/ems department and get some education on the subject before you make yourselfs look like
mother of 4 why dont YOU let it go. nobody says that they dont feel sorry for the loss of that mans life BUT it doesnt give anyone the right to try and shift blame on people that dont deserve it. Emergency workers are the first ones that people point fingers out but still the first ones to respond when those same people call for help. When the decision was made to go in the water it was too late.
To Nonya why don't you let it go. You keep saying that pointing blame does not help but yet you want to keep pointing the blame to the boys and family. This family has had more than their share of heartache and if venting a little on this post helps them then so be it. Why can't you just let it go and leave them alone. They were young boys and it was a tragic thing that could of happened to anyones child. You are only making this worse. LET IT GO and let this poor family grieve. My prayers are with the Smith family. I hope and pray that if anything like this happens to anyone elses son/daughter that something has been learned from this and things will be handled differently. You can't tell me that if this was your child you would have felt like everything possible had been done to try to save your childs life. Please just give this family your prayers and let them be.
it is a shame that the search for this young man was called off until early in the next morning.
Peggy you said it all im very sorry for your loss my prayers are with you and your family
to nonya you didnt watch that broadcast very close did you it said it did have a drop in the road and if you didnt know the road you wouldnt know about that and the boys couldnt have known about the drop in the road if you live in that county take the peoples advice and fix the road as best as it can be so this NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN it still boils down to paid officials
That road did not suddenly drop off into a hole that swept the truck away. He knew he was driving in water. If not he was driving too fast for conditions and should have seen the water in the road before he drove into it. The search was called off because the chance of finding a living person was nill. You admit that emergency workers are trained to operate under these conditions.. which they are. We are also trained in something called risk v.s. benefit. You can't risk the lives of rescuers under those conditions on a "what if". If there was any evidence that the boy may have survived then they would have continued to search. To allow civilians to freelance search in those conditions would have dangerous. There is a good chance more would have died. He is responsible for everyone on that scene. He made the right call. It is a horrible situation and I feel bad for the family but to blame the sheriff is stupid. "Turn around, don't drown"... Hope everyone learns something.
I want to make it clear that I am not "blaming" anyone for my cousin's death. I just believe that stronger efforts could have been made. The outcome likely would have been the same, but what a comfort it would have been knowing that everything possible had been done. I believe God has a plan for each of us and only He knows when He is going to call us home, so apparently is was Josh's time. Even believing this was God's plan, this is still difficult to accept. As for my information being rumors, I want you to know that my information comes directly from people who were there trying to help. Please keep your negative and helpful comments to yourself. My family is grieving and frustrated with our loss. I look forward to the day that I enter heaven's gates and am welcomed my Josh. Please have mercy on us and rather than bash us and tell us how careless they were by driving into water, pray for us to have peace!
Maybe I am missing something. Everyone talks about this helicopter that was refused. It is my understanding that the Greenwood County Sheriff called the State for one and thier unit was not available. I guess that story wasnt told over coffee becuase it doesnt make good GOSSIP! God you people! Get the facts strait maybe try truth for a change. Quit trying to wag the dog and put the blame if there is any where it belongs. Does it make things better? What happens if GOD FORBID the emergency workers did everything they could but there was NOTHING that could have been done?? Should you be asking why the boys were out there to begin with?? Was there something wrong with K54? The SAFE way home?? Do you think that this bashing is helping anyone? Should we blame the boy driving becuase he didnt turn around. Should we blame his poor mother because he couldnt swim better? Does this help people? Really?
Emergency personell are paid to perform in situations like this, I don't want to see any of them get hurt either but this is what they are trained for. These kids that were in the truck were not trained for this situation and were scared, this is the time that you expect the people that are paid to serve and protect to do thier job, it is horrible to think that they would not do everything in their power to save him. There is another thing that bothers me though, I read the comments saying that they should have known better than to drive through the water, if you were trying to get home would you have gone all the way back around and I do not understand after listing to the guy that they interviewed in the story talk about how dangerous that part of the road is why you would not make sure to block it off high enought that the barricades would not be swept away. There are grieving families that have lost someone close to them, do not attack them for expressing their frustrations.
I too would like to know why a helicopter with spotlights and thermal imaging was turned down by the Greenwood county sheriff. What would it have hurt? It might have made the difference in the outcome. Josh was a wonderful boy and will be missed by all that knew him. He and his family deserved better than the service they were given by elected officials. God be with the Smith family!
You people talk about uncooth and heartless yet you sit on judgement with absolutely nothing but rumors to go on. Trying to get through to you is pointless obviously. The emergency workers did not kill that boy the river did. I dont know if you dont care to know the truth but i asked around so i would know. the emergency workers were there ALL NIGHT, including the SHERIFF OFFICE and RESCUE WORKERS. They did not go up there to PICNIC people, I hate to be rude but you are not being fair to anyone. Maybe before you make JUDGEMENT unless you were there all night too you should hold your tongue and say thank you for doing your best or realize by keeping the other family out of the water maybe they saved other lives. When the water is over 5 feet out of its banks and can move a truck that large that far down the river there is nothing that could have been done. I was told there were people on both sides. I do feel sorry for the families loss and send prayers out to the other son.