WheelChairRecovery On October 17, 2009, Joel Talley and members of the ALERT dive team recovered a wheelchair for a fisherman at Lake Fork, TX. The dive team responded to a call on October 16 from Wood County Game Warden Kurt Kelly for a fisherman who lost his wheelchair while in a fishing tournament. Mr. Talley and his divers arrived on scene at 4:15 p.m. They searched for several hours in the area the fisherman found the wheelchair’s cushion floating. The team planned to return the next day to expand the search area.

They recovered the wheelchair on October 17 at 6:08 p.m. in 34 feet of water with little to no visibility after 2 hours of searching. The bottom of the lake was relatively clear of debris allowing the option of the Circle Search method. The divers used GPS and buoys to grid off nearly 80,000 square feet. After debriefing and packing up their gear, the ALERT divers were able to return the wheelchair to friends of the fisherman that evening.
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