Fall River Harbormaster updates rescue situation in the Taunton River in Fall River

While the circumstances are tragic for Marc Hanoud’s family and friends and the community as a whole, Fall River Harbormaster Bob Smith has done a great job updating the rescue situation in the Taunton River.

In his new installment, Smith gets into more detail in describing what the rescue crews are dealing with when trying to bring Marc home to his family.

In the list of many groups participating in the rescue effort from Fall River and beyond, one that may have been recently overlooked is the contingent from Somerset who has been present each day of searching.

Here is Smith’s statement for Tuesday:

“Today was a very long and disappointing day in that none of our high probability image targets turned out to be what we were looking for. You have to understand that the sonar images are open to interpretation. The image is not that of a body with a torso and clearly defined limbs. It’s more of a shape. The interpretation is made as to it’s position on the bottom, proportionate size, density, and several other factors. The challenge is to try to recognize a body from everything else sitting on the ocean floor, besides rocks, debris, etc.”

“Again today we were fortunate to have a tremendous amount of volunteers and agencies working to bring Marc back to his family. Besides the Harbormasters we had Fall River Harbor Patrol, Fall River Fire, Tiverton Fire, Bristol Police, MA Environmental Police and MA State Police brought dogs and several divers, along with more imaging equipment. The Chief of the Somerset Fire Dept. offered their boat and personnel. The MSP divers dove on several high potential targets based on the images received. Unfortunately none were what we wanted.”

“Mike Lund from Borden Light Marina has effectively allowed his business to be shut down and be used for a command center to keep all the response boats, equipment, cars, trailers, media trucks, and so much more. Marc’s family continues to stay in a camper at the marina.”

“We had a company called Oceanserver on scene today with their imaging vessel “Regulas”. They heard about what was happening and reached out to help. They manufacture unmanned underwater robots that can image the ocean floor. Regulas dispatched several unmanned robots in the areas that we felt were important. However the results were negative. Weather conditions got terribly bad in the afternoon and most search assets had to be called in.”

“Tomorrow (Wed.) we will be back at it again. We’ve got more dive teams as well as more imaging planned. I’m sure that we will continue to receive the same amount of amazing support from our neighbor communities and friends as we have had since this mission started. I apologize if I forgot to thank anyone in the above list. We have been supported in so many ways, by so many agencies, businesses, and friends and relatives of the victim.”

“Thank you again to everyone that is helping with this mission., and perhaps tomorrow will be a day of closure for Marc’s family.”