A five member specialized aquatic recovery team from Morris, Manitoba has deployed to Terrace to assist with the search for Tom Kelly.
Speaking to CFNR earlier this week Tom’s wife, Shauna Kelly, who’s been tirelessly searching the Skeena River ever since her husband was swept away while fishing on July 12th, described the development as case of the the stars aligning.
‘It’s just really amazing luck that the stars aligned to get them here.’ – Shauna Kelly on HEART Team’s deployment to Terrace
Shauna says she’d been in touch with the Hutterian Emergency Aquatic Response Team since Day 5 of the search efforts, but as a volunteer run non-profit, the team couldn’t book enough consecutive time off to make the trip to Terrace from Morris, Manitoba until now.
Skeena MLA Claire Rattée confirmed to CFNR that she had spoken to Shauna Kelly about her husband’s case, and that she also had a meeting with the Terrace RCMP about the search efforts on Wednesday, August 13th.
‘I basically advocated on her behalf that, you know, they have another conversation, and my understanding is that the RCMP did reach out to her again.’ – Skeena MLA Claire Rattée on her meeting with the Terrace RCMP
Shauna says communications have improved with the Terrace RCMP Detachment since then, and that the Terrace RCMP had told her they looked into the possibility of requesting additional outside resources to assist with the search alongside the HEART team this weekend, but it turns out the Okanagan SAR team was not available.
As the Heart Team is not an RCMP resource or a publicly funded organization, the team did not require an official request for outside assistance from the Terrace RCMP before they deployed to Terrace, but they are paying for the trip out of their own pockets.
To cover the cost, the HEART team has been raising funds via donations on their website and social media pages, with more than $5000 raised by Friday, August 15th.
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