I know this is a late reply , but I just joined and saw these posts about the rescue at Simmons Mingo.
We were contacted by a landowner about a vehicle that had been parked near the Pocahontas county entrance for an est. 26 hrs. Captain Hall called me and we started to assemble a team. I contacted Mike Cassell who is the head of pocahontas county rescue and he turned the scene over to SFFR.I called Melvin Martin Pocahontas OES. I then contacted Carrol Basset and John Hempell to put a team on standby.I called Randolph county for assistance and Randall Ware of Valley Head FD., Closest AHJ to the Historic entrance. No members of Valley Head had any cave experience.My crew was of limited experience and only 2 were willing or able to assist in entry. I had a crew of 4 for incident command and EMS. The lost cavers were reported to have entered Zarathustra entrance and had intended to do some digging although I never found out where or why.I started at this end thinking that an accident could have trapped them near dry branch.
My team enetered the cave after midnight and we went as far as team ability allowed.
Finding no clue of accident or cavers we exited and restationed at the Historic entrance. I suspected they were nearer to this entrance due to time lapsed.Entering with the same team I assigned an exit time of 3 hrs and began searching we went all the way to the register room when 1 team member couldnt (or wouldnt ) go through a very tight squeeze.we left him and went as far as voice would travel then I left Cptn Hall for as far as I could hear him then I started screaming to see if I could hear a reply.Hearing nothing we returned to the surface almost excatly the prescribed time for exit. When we exited there were at least 20 cavers and red cross. Very good maps and cavers that were more familiar with this cave than I.Jeff Good, Caroll Bassett , Tony Smith and Glen Hugus were some of the faces we saw upon exit.
We had been on scene for 9 hours and were tired and hungry.So we returned to station 4 ( upon Jeffs recomendation)and cleaned equipment.about 11 am we were toned again . The cavers had been found and they needed more bodies for extication.
Evidently we had been very close to them when we turned around . They said they heard someone screaming but were too weak to be heard.Just another 20 minutes and we would have found them ourselves.
When we got on scene all cavers were out except the injured female and we went in to assist with extrication.
Response to need for assistance and the professional manner of operation was a tribute to NCRC training and the nobel efforts of all rescuers are greatly appreciated by SFFR and Valley Head FD.
I had done one throught trip with a group in 06 but still did not have perfect knowledge of the cave. I have been doing yoyo trips since then to get a better knowledge of this beautiful and rugged cave.And to make a through trip myself.
Since then SFFR has had 3 rescues in Sharps Cave (one of which was a false call, a novice found some bones and thought they were human).
One was Three females that had gotten confused at the waterfall and circled for some hours.friends had called 911 when they didnt exit at the prescribed time.We found them in 20 minutes and had them above ground in under 40 minutes. The other was in sept . and an experienced caver had fallen and injured his hip.Thanks to the crowd at OTR for assistance in that one.
I now have two level 2 leaders and one level one. with 8 members with Orientation to Cave Rescue ( which was held at SFFR by Jeff , Tony and Glen with Doc Steve as EMS) and they will be level one soon.We have new equipment and adequate maps of most caves within 100 miles.
Thanks again to all