Monday September 30, 2019 at about 1:42pm, the Curry County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call from Nebraska resident forty-year-old Sere Bauer reporting that she was stuck on a cliffside with her dog after slipping down a steep embankment near Natural Bridges between Gold Beach and Brookings.
Bauer said she was a Radiologist working at Sutter Coast Hospital in Crescent City, Ca., and that she had parked her car at a wayside and walked a coastal trail for about a half hour before becoming stranded off trail trying to make her way to the beach. Bauer stated that she was holding onto shrubbery but that she was slipping.
Curry County Deputies and Oregon State Police responded to the area while the Curry County Search and Rescue team was paged to respond with rope rappel equipment.
Deputies and Troopers located Bauer’s car parked at the Natural Bridges wayside while a Trooper drove along the highway with his siren on hoping Bauer could hear the siren. Curry County Dispatch Deputy Synthia Westerman kept Bauer on the line reassuring her and reporting information back and forth from Bauer through dispatch to Deputies and Troopers until the first responders were able to locate Bauer.
Curry County Search and Rescue arrived and hiked down to the steep brushy cliff, located Bauer and set up a rope system above her. Bauer was about two hundred feet below the SAR team and about two hundred feet above the rocky beach below.
SAR member Art Tarin rappelled down to Bauer and secured her to himself with a climbing harness while the rest of the SAR members raised both Tarin and Bauer back to the top. Tarin then rappelled back down and got Bauer’s dog back to the top as well.
“This is the second time in two weeks where Search and Rescue, Deputies, Troopers and other first responders have rescued someone who had gone off trail along the coastal trail between Gold Beach and Brookings. Other than myself being involved in this particular rescue I want to give credit where credit is due. Deputy Joshua Teter, Detective Jaried Freeman and Lt. John Ensley. SAR members who rescued Bauer are, Art Tarin, Happ Flynn, Thomas Sorrentino, Cam Lynn, Andy Stubbs, Craig Rasbury, John Bischoff and Phil Dickson. OSP Troopers Robin Katter, Kyle Kennedy and Bryan Neely.” – Sheriff John Ward.
Was awesome to see something showing my brother (Phil Dickson) being a hero! Thanks for that and thanks for showing, live far away and makes me miss him all the more. A lot more people in D/FW, TX will be reading this article.