Arizona Daily Sun from Flagstaff, Arizona • A6

A6 Saturday, July 21, 2018 ArizonA DAily Sun 1 as under tree canopies. But deputy Paul Clifton, the officer tasked with de- veloping the UAS program, has bigger goals moving forward. terms of equipment, we do want to expand our capabilities such as the use of thermal imaging, espe- cially for the winter and to use at Clifton said. we want to be able to expand into aircraft that would be able to carry a payload. If we have a sub- ject that is stuck in a loca- tion that is going to take us a while to access, it would be great to be able to get a radio to them to be able to talk to them, to get them food and water.

next step is better sensors, better cameras, then payload. All of this is subject to FAA rules. Right now, we are working to get certifications and waivers to fly in restricted airspaces close to airports such as Flagstaff, Sedona and the Grand Clifton added. every- thing else we do in search and rescue, we want to be on the For now, the UAS pro- gram being developed by search and rescue is fo- cused on the safety of the volunteers in the field looking for missing people. helps us with safety, primarily in that it enables us to look at an area with- out exposing people to Dick said.

particular inci- dent where the UAS would have been really helpful was a suicide in the Little Colorado River Gorge. We located a body, but were not completely sure of the identity of the person. There were concerns of rock falls and risks to our Dick added. were trying to iden- tify the person that we had found using a spotting scope from the other side of the canyon, but if we had had the UAS at that time we would have been able to fly it across and get a better identification before send- ing someone down. It was important to get that iden- tification so that we could call off the search or keep Clifton recalled another search on Grey Mountain that had a better ending.

were looking for an elderly woman who had wandered away from her home. Her family said that she had some dementia issues and that she may not respond to search- the deputy said. the pinion and juni- per setting that we were searching, the UAS would have been really help- ful covering larger open With the addition of the unmanned aerial system, the volunteers and depu- ties tasked with rescuing lost persons have one more valuable tool in the hunt. a big puzzle, these searches, and I think part of the fun of Dick said. do the investi- gating, get all of the puzzle pieces together and work out what you need to do to resolve Search and Rescue responds to several monsoon related calls Over the last few days, the Coconino County Search and rescue unit has responded to multiple calls for people who were caught unprepared by weather events in Northern arizona.

CCSO would like to remind those who head outdoors to pay attention to weather forecasts and be prepared for changing conditions during their trip. Severe weather may impact the ability of public safety personnel to respond to some locations, requiring the outdoor user to care for themselves with their own survival equipment until help can arrive. On July 18 at 10:20 a.m. the Coconino County Sher- Office Search and rescue unit, Guardian Medical transport, and Summit Fire district responded to a report of an injury on the Peak trail. a tree fell on a trail worker.

during the response, there was severe weather, including heavy rain, hail, and lightning in the area causing difficulty for responders. Personnel from the arizona Snowbowl assisted emer- gency responders in locating and transporting the patient to the Snowbowl parking lot and to a waiting ambulance. On July 18 at noon the Search and rescue unit was no- tified of a Personal locator Beacon emergency activa- tion in Paria Canyon upstream from Wrather arch. the area had been under a flash flood warning the eve- ning before. the PlB was registered to a 65-year-old woman from australia.

the hiker was hiking the length of Paria Canyon and planned to exit at Ferry on Friday. an arizona department of Public Safety air rescue helicopter was requested to attempt to locate the hiker. at 2:12 p.m., the dPS air rescue helicopter located the hiker and landed nearby in the canyon. the hiker indicated that she had become stuck in quicksand for 30 minutes, and once free was swept downstream a short distance due to a flash flood the evening before. after escaping the flood water, she was unable to hike to her camp due to the high wa- ter and spent the night on some higher ground.

On Wednesday morning she was able to hike back to her camp but was exhausted, out of drinking water, and mildly hypothermic. at that point she activated her PlB to signal for rescue. dPS air rescue flew the hiker to Ferry where she had staged a vehicle. at 4:15 p.m. on July 19, the Search and rescue unit re- sponded to a report of a hiker stranded by high flood waters in the area of Pomeroy tanks along the Syca- more rim trail system.

deputies attempted to make access to the area to provide assistance, but many of the roads in the area were impassable due to heavy rain and high water in drainages. a Search and rescue vehicle successfully accessed a location near the hiker. From that location, a Search and rescue deputy and a patrol deputy were able to hike into the location and escort the stranded hiker out safely. they arrived back at the rescue vehicle at 8:30 p.m. the hiker, an adult male from Scottsdale, was given a ride back to his vehicle.

While the rescue near Pomeroy tanks was wrapping up, the Search and rescue unit responded to two stranded motorists near the Sawmill Hills north of lake Mary road. they were scouting the area for an upcoming hunt, and their utV had a mechanical mal- function. they called a friend who was not in the area and informed that person that they were going to walk to the intersection of Forest road 82 and Forest road 82B to wait for help. the friend called the office to request assistance. Heavy rain and thunder- storms in the area made access to the intersection difficult.

Search and rescue personnel located the two men at the intersection at 10:30 p.m. and provided them a ride to their camp site located off of lake Mary road. the two men from las Vegas did not require any medical attention. least 20,000 homes. Oper- ations could begin some- time in 2020.

Beyond power genera- tion, the project aims to pave the way for the de- velopment of new water, communications and elec- tricity infrastructure that would extend out to local homes in the area, Derek Dyson told about 25 residents at the meet- ing. The utility, which is a tribal enterprise, is also in talks with a technol- ogy company that would co-locate at the solar site to take advantage of the energy infrastructure and employ local work- ers, said Walter Haase, general manager for NTUA. The project meant to generate more renew- able energy for Navajo Nation customers though, Haase said. Renewables, mainly hydropower, al- ready supply 35 to 55 per- cent of energy demand, he said. Instead, Haase sees the panels through the lens of eco- nomic development.

He looks at renewable energy as a homegrown product of sorts that can then be sold to bring rev- enue back to the reserva- tion. He said NTUA plans to use money it generates from solar projects to keep its rates low or to fund projects that expand elec- tricity to the estimated 15,000 homes on Navajo that still have power. actual thing trying to do is trying to diversify the Navajo Na- economy and trying to bring in dollars from outside of Navajo to benefit the Navajo people and the Navajo govern- he said. Local benefits While the project is still in the beginning planning stages, Haase said NTUA has already gained key permissions it needs to move forward. The graz- ing leaseholder in the area and the grazing official gave their ap- proval and then earlier this month, the chapter passed a resolution that allows NTUA to conduct a feasi- bility assessment and then develop renewables on up to 5,000 acres within the Cameron Chapter.

Even so, tribal members said they want to make sure the project brings tangible benefits to locals. Stanley Rob- bins said that overall he supports the project, but like to see NTUA build some goodwill with the chapter at the outset by pitching in for solar pan- els on the chapter house or a solar-powered pump for livestock. Milton Tso, president of the Cameron Chapter, said that when chapter officials sit down to nego- tiate the final terms of the project, be pushing for an agreement where the chapter gets a specific share of the taxes and lease revenue. lot of it has to do with actually going to come back to the chap- ter, how is Cameron go- ing to Tso said. just trust the central government in Window Rock He was hopeful about the potential to extend electricity to homes without it and cre- ate jobs and job training opportunities for local residents.

NTUA guarantee- ing that local homes will see new water, power and communications infra- structure if the solar plant gets built, though. What the development will do is establish crucial energy infrastructure that will make such projects much more likely to happen, he said. now all of a sudden when I want to build power or water, just the cost of the line that I need to absorb. I need to get backbone (infrastructure) he said. Renewable energy redo About a decade ago, tribal members in Gray Mountain saw another renewable energy proposal fall through after years of planning and negotiations.

Two companies were jos- tling to build a massive wind farm in the area but the project got caught up in clashes between the chapter and the tribal government over which developer to use and, in the end, it never got off the ground. Tso said he thinks this project is different be- cause NTUA is a local en- tity and noted that people respected that it has fol- lowed the correct steps for gaining various permis- sions at the chapter level. Haase said NTUA also has the advantage of hav- ing completed a solar plant on tribal land. There are still many steps to go, including a site lease process and an environmental review, but Haase said he has a strong level of confidence that the utility will build this project, or at least some project, on the Cameron site. He said he expects the array will produce solar power at a cheaper rate than the Kayenta facility thanks to the larger scale and continued advance- ments in solar technology.

The project was among the top finalists for a recent power purchase agreement with a utility, which Haase said gives him confidence that the proposed pricing is competitive. Financing for the panels be a problem as long as NTUA can find a buyer for the solar power, he said. As the tribe faces the closure of the Navajo Generating Station due to increasingly uneco- nomic prospects, solar is a more sustainable path moving forward, Tso said. way I see it is coal is dying we need to look into more clean energy and we have the weather for Tso said. Emery Cowan can be reached at (928) 556-2250 or Project From A1 Drones From A1 have made huge leaps in rapidly decoding DNA, but they sometimes know what their findings mean.

They can even get fooled. That can come to a head when medical profession- als have people tested for genetic variants that cause or promote a dis- ease, usually because they show symptoms or an ill- ness runs in their family. The testing often focuses on relatively rare disor- ders, caused by a single gene. Medicine is getting into genetic testing in a big way. One recent esti- mate found nearly 75,000 health-related DNA tests being marketed by Amer- ican labs to health care providers, mostly for sin- gle-gene disorders, with the total growing rapidly.

And this year, the Penn- sylvania-based Geisinger health system began of- fering free genetic testing to its patients as a stan- dard part of its disease prevention efforts, along with things like mam- mograms and cholesterol checks. Americans are inter- ested in what their genes say about their health. Poll results released Thursday by The Associated Press- NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 60 percent would want to know if they carried a vari- ant associated with even an incurable disease. But DNA test results can be puzzling. Katie fetus had what experts call a of uncertain sig- or a VUS.

Many are known: One standard database contains almost 193,000 variants catego- rized as a VUS, more than twice the number of listed variants known to cause disease. Each variant may be seen in only one or a handful of patients. But as a group, many thousands of them are being reported to pa- tients, said Heidi Rehm of Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute in Cam- bridge, Massachusetts. The rates vary by disease area. In seeking genes to explain a hearing loss, for example, around half of tests will find only a VUS, she said.

A child with symptoms that sug- gest developmental delay or a related disorder might get a test that examines 200 genes, she said. With such a wide net cast, the chances of a VUS are nearly 100 percent, she said. That can cause more than worry, said Otis Brawley, chief medical and scientific officer for the American Cancer Soci- ety. He tells of women who got breasts removed after learning they had a VUS in a gene linked to breast can- cer only to learn years later that further research showed the variants were harmless. How can this be? How can scientists not know whether a DNA abnormal- ity is dangerous? To understand that, it helps to know a bit about DNA.

In each of us, the genetic code is like a text with 3 billion letters. Some of those letters spell words genes that carry out specific jobs. If a gene has one or more letters that ar- the ones found in the generic of hu- man DNA, they are called variants. Some variants lead to disease. But each of us carries many variants, and most are harmless.

You tell their effect just by looking at them. And just because a variant is rare, that mean harmful. Testing From A1 FROM THE FRONT PAGE now, just mak- ing a declaration is put- ting the state on notice that dealing with an he said. The county is now as- sessing the damages to public infrastructure, private property, road- ways and utilities in or- der to create a preliminary damage assessment. The county will coordinate with the Arizona De- partment of Emergency and Military Affairs and finalize the assessment next week.

Once the damage as- sessment is finalized, the county will decide whether to send the dec- laration with the damage amount to Governor Doug office. Once the declaration is sent, Whitney said the county would receive upwards of $200,000 to dedicate to efforts in the Brandis Way area. Unfortunately, the county have the luxury of waiting for the final figures or any ad- ditional funding to come in before starting resto- ration work. Not even halfway through the monsoon season, and with rain fore- casts similar to Wednes- day bound to come up again, the county is try- ing to restore the road- ways and the floodwater conveyance channels as soon as possible to ensure safety to area residents. of things the workers on the ground are doing is they take a before picture, do the work, and take an after Whitney said.

just like them conducting a damage In a Thursday night in- terview, Coconino County Director of Public Works Lucinda Andreani said that while damaged, all of the 2013 improvements to the area, including the on-forest sediment re- duction measures and off-forest floodwa- ter conveyance chan- nels, greatly reduced the amount of damage that could have been done. way the whole system was designed, the road was slanted toward the ditch so that the road could serve as a chan- nel if the channel over- Andreani said. did overflow in some places, but had it not been there, we had an additional 100 homes She added that the en- gineer who oversaw the 2013 improvement proj- ect that was completed after the 2010 Schultz Fire flood was there to inspect the infrastructure yester- day. got a report from him that the alluvial fans in the forest are still com- pletely she said. couple of logs loos- ened, and we are making The engineer also walked the length of the channel on Brandis Way from the forest to 89A and has a few recommen- dations of areas to repair.

This week, public works focused on clearing trees and debris from the four bridges on the channel. There were a few areas where the articulated block within the chan- nel became unraveled and dislodged, and crews were working to remove and reinforce them. Andreani said the county is also mobilizing resources and bringing sandbags and concrete barriers to some of the residents to put in their yards to prevent future flooding from affecting their property. Emergency From A1 THE EQUALIZER 2 10:00 NMAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAINC 4:20 THE EQUALIZER 2 11:15, 2:00, 3:15, 4:00, 4:50, 5:40, 7:45, 8:30, 10:35 KF LEAVE NO TRACE 6:05, 9:50 MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN 10:30, 1:10, 3:10, 3:50, 5:50, 6:30, 7:00, 7:45, 8:30, 9:10, 9:40, 10:50 NKF UNFRIENDED: DARK WEB 5:20, 8:30, 11:10 HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION 10:50, 11:40, 1:15, 2:10, 3:35, 4:40, 6:10, 7:10, 8:30, 9:30 SKYSCRAPER 2:30, 5:10, 6:10, 8:20, 9:50, 10:40 ANT-MAN AND THE WASP 10:45, 1:30, 3:00, 4:10, 7:00, 10:45 THE FIRST PURGE 3:40, 7:35, 10:45 SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO 5:00, 7:50, 10:40 UNCLE DREW JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM 4:50, 7:40, 10:30 THE INCREDIBLES 2 3:30, 6:20, 9:20 Special Engagement No Passes, No Coupons Closed Captioning Device not available Audio Description Headsets not available Saturday 7.21 2018Showtimes valid for 2007 VOTED BEST JEWELER by Arizona Daily Sun Readers In Historic Downtown Flagstaff 204 E. Route 66 Flagstaff, AZ 773-8914 Does shewant forever withyou? Find forever in a seconds.

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