BY HENRI ROBBINS
Loveland Local News
MIAMI TOWNSHIP (CLERMONT COUNTY), Ohio — There’s a new tool available to public safety officials in the Greater Cincinnati area – and an early callout happened during an emergency on the Little Miami River.
Around 11:45 a.m. June 19, Clermont County dispatchers received a 911 call from someone who believed they saw a kayak in the river and potentially a person in the river near it. After extensive searching from a bridge, officials called the search off without finding a person in distress.
Members of the Loveland-Symmes Fire Department stand ready on June 19, 2021 at Lake Isabella Park near the Little Miami River. They were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
An Ohio Department of Natural Resources officer leaves a scene on Link Road on June 19, 2021. ODNR officers were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
An Ohio Department of Natural Resources officer speaks with other responders on Link Road on June 19, 2021. ODNR officers were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
Firefighters stage an area at the Kelley Nature Preserve on June 19, 2021. ODNR officers were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
The Little Mimai River bridge on State Route 126 in Milford June 19, 2021. Firefighters from multiple departments were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
A Miami Township police officer monitors the river for a missing kayaker on June 19, 2021 from the State Route 126 bridge. A cyclist on the Little Miami State Park scenic trail watches from a nearby bridge. First reponders from multiple departments were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
Blue Ash Police Department Patrol Officer Bill Fritts points to the river with Woodlawn Fire Chief Amos Johnson (in white shirt) on June 19, 2021 on a bridge in the Branch Hill section of Miami Township. They were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. A Blue Ash Police Department sergeant watches. 
A Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department helicopter circles near the banks of the Great Miami River at Blue Rock and East Miami River roads on May 12, 2021. A 911 caller reported seeing a vehicle floating down the river, which was swollen after heavy rains. A sheriff helicopter also aided in the search. No vehicle was found and the search was called off. The UAS 500 team was also dispatched to aid in the search. 
Police and fire command vehciles stage on the Blue Rock Road bridge over the Great Miami River on May 12, 2021. A 911 caller reported seeing a vehicle floating down the river, which was swollen after heavy rains. A sheriff helicopter also aided in the search. No vehicle was found and the search was called off. The UAS 500 team was also dispatched to aid in the search. 
A Colerain Township Fire Department rescue boat stands at the ready along the banks of the Great Miami River at Blue Rock and East Miami River roads on May 12, 2021. A 911 caller reported seeing a vehicle floating down the river, which was swollen after heavy rains. A sheriff helicopter also aided in the search. No vehicle was found and the search was called off. The UAS 500 team was also dispatched to aid in the search. 
Miami Township firefighters are ready to deploy rescue boats along the river on June 19, 2021 along Branch Hill-Loveland Road near Riverview Park. Firefighters from multiple departments were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
Miami Township firefighters along the river on June 19, 2021 along Branch Hill-Loveland Road near Riverview Park. Firefighters from multiple departments were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. 
Blue Ash Police Department Patrol Officer Bill Fritts, types details into his phone, as he is briefed by Miami Township firefighter on June 19, 2021 on a bridge in the Branch Hill section of Miami Township. Fritts was aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. Fritts is a member of the multi-agency UAS 500 drone response team. A Blue Ash police sergeant listens to the briefing. 
Drone cases with spare batteries and a back-up drone on June 19, 2021 on a bridge in the Branch Hill section of Miami Township. The drones, belonging to the Blue Ash Police Department, were aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels. The drones are used in conjunction with the new UAS 500 drone reponse team. 
Blue Ash Police Department Patrol Officer Bill Fritts flies a drone over the Little Miami River on June 19, 2021 on a bridge in the Branch Hill section of Miami Township. He was aiding the Miami Township Fire Department locate a reported kayaker in distress after strong storms had raised the Little Miami River to dangerous levels.
Agencies from across Loveland and Clermont Counties, plus Cincinnati agencies and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources officers, responded to assist in the search. But what was different was the Miami Township Fire Department’s decision to request assistance from the UAS 500 Team. “UAS” stands for “unmanned aerial system,” the Federal Aviation Administration parlance for a drone.
UAS 500 Drone Team, an organization of volunteer drone pilots from police and fire departments from around Greater Cincinnati, assists in search and rescue operations. Woodlawn Fire Chief Amos Johnson, a volunteer drone pilot, said the drones allow for a bird’s eye view during their search, along with other advantages. The group was formed in 2020 and is dispatched through the Hamilton County Communications Center when a public safety official deems a drone might be helpful. River searches, missing person searches and crash scene investigations are just a few uses where drones can be beneficial.
“We can fly drones from a safe location,” Johnson said. “We can put them up, go to the safe height, and come down right in the middle of the river about 50 feet.”
Though they did not find a person in the water, crews did find an empty kayak – with the drone’s assistance.
Miami Township Fire Department Lt. Jonathan McKinnish said the combined search parties did find the boat in the water, but there was no evidence anyone was in it. Instead, officials believe before or after the storm waters knocked the boat into the water.
Having a line-of-sight range of around a quarter-mile, Johnson said he had to repeatedly move along the river during his search to maintain his visual connection with the drone.
Along with being safer, McKinnish, who worked with the drone team, said the drones could be more efficient than putting responders in the water.
“They’ve got some capabilities that the human eye doesn’t have,” McKinnish said. “With infrared, we can sense temperature, in case somebody was to be caught up on a tree and stopped there.”
In May, Colerain Township Fire Department officials activated the UAS 500 Team for a similarly-reported river incident in the Great Miami River. Hamilton County dispatchers received a call from someone reporting they saw a car floating down the very swollen river. First responders mobilized with fire engines, rescue boats, police cars – and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s helicopter swept the area. Even though the aircraft can fly faster and higher than a drone, helicopters are expensive to maintain and costly to fly, averaging thousands of dollars per hour. An average drone runs on batteries, requires minor maintenance and costs about $2,000 to buy and lasts several years.
Fire officials in Colerain called off the search after about an hour. No vehicles or people were found in the river.
Back in the Loveland area, having faced heavy rain and winds the night before, the river was above flood stage in many places, and some parts of Loveland had even flooded. The National Weather Service river gauge at Kings Mills indicated the river went from around 4.5 feet on June 18 morning to 19.35 feet — its highest point during the storms — on June 19 afternoon, where it reached over 2 feet above flood stage. The river had returned to about 8.5 feet June 21.
Because of the storms around this mid-June incident and resulting current — Ohio Department of Natural Resources, or ODNR, Patrol Lt. Michael Sterwerf said was over 29,000 cubic feet per second — the department chose to monitor the water using drones as opposed to human-crewed boats.
“We want to always err on the side of caution,” McKinnish said. “That’s why we had the full response with the boats out here, the swift water rescue teams, and had the drones out to facilitate the search.”
During ODNR’s investigation, they found that a person had been on the river in a green kayak following an empty blue canoe that fell into the water. Following up with the original caller, who reported an empty boat and a potential person in the water, they could not confirm anyone was actually in the water.
“As it stands right now, we know we have a vessel that is missing, but we do not know whether we have a person that is missing,” Sterwerf said.
ODNR officers have checked parking lots near the river for evidence of boat launches and will return to see if any vehicles remain untouched later. Along with that, they are monitoring calls for missing persons. Both help determine if someone is missing before prolonging the search.
In events like this, Sterwerf said that if someone sees a person in the water, the best thing they can do is try to pull them from the water if possible and call 911 for assistance, letting the responder know when and where the person was last seen.
“[Calling 911] is probably the best thing. If (the caller is) close to the water, you can throw something to them to help them get back to the shore,” Sterwerf said. “We generally tell people, in these types of conditions, not to go in [the water] after anybody because you’re now putting yourself at risk.”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Loveland Local News editor and senior reporter, Joe Wessels, also an FAA-certified drone pilot, is now a volunteer member of the UAS 500 drone response team. He was not on the team when this story was reported or during any of the incidents described in this article.
Last Updated on August 2, 2021 by Joe Wessels
