For those who repeatedly bash statistics used in formulating a search plan, please consider:
1. This is a 2-year-old child who is not dressed appropriately for a new weather system that is moving in quickly.
2. Children, just like older adults, cannot regulate their temperature effectively. They are the first to become cold or hot, far sooner than an adult would. Lost heat = poor thermal imaging.
3. You have no idea of the terrain ahead of you, or even which way he was heading.
There is a REASON for the statistics that guide a search -- they don't cover every case studied, but they represent the outcome of MOST cases studied. And if you don't think people check and adjust and check again, you're just plain wrong.
Dogs save many lives, but not all. By all means, tell the dogs and their handlers you don't need their assistance.
Helicopters locate many missing people, but not all. So, do you not use them? If not could you be the person tell the next family you're tossing the statistics and winging it?
Statistics are a tool like any other. They are based on years of study and experience, and all the times they have aided in the search and/or recovery of the missing that never make it into WS case pages. If it were my child, sorry, BRING THEM ON. Well-intentioned strangers who know they could do better without benefit of existing analysis but all the conviction of their *feelings*... well, the world is full of Sunday morning quarterbacks. Just please, DON'T disparage those who gave a week of their lives, 24 hours a day, and all the knowledge and tools at their disposal -- and yet weren't able to guarantee a better outcome.
