First responders and rescue professionals from across the Carolina’s and Virginia were in Pender County Saturday for Swamp Stomp. This annual training event was created to sharpen skills of search and rescue personnel in the event of a lost or missing person.
Around 160 people came out to the Holly Shelter Game Lands for this training.
Assistant Chief David Dudding with Pender EMS and Fire said, “We put four to five people in the woods. These are trained search rescue professionals, we call them our rabbits, and we put them out, we give them all the supplies they need. And they’ll leave clues as they walk, they’ll go through trails. And that leaves us the opportunity to put search and rescue personnel out there to try to find them and they report back those clues as they actually come upon them.”