James Kim Search Update: Searchers Find Clothing, Cut-up Map, Left by Missing California Father

The focus of the search continues to be the Big Windy Creek Drainage about 30 miles west of Grants Pass north of Bear Camp Road. A 5-mile long canyon and is about five miles from where the car was found.

Photo: Oregon State Police

(MERLIN) - Searchers plan to drop 18 rescue care packages Wednesday with warm clothing, emergency gear and food in hopes missing San Francisco man James Kim could find one and survive until rescuers can locate him.

Officials said the packages contain orange sweat shirts, wool blankets, flares, MRE’s, handwarmers, flashlights, gloves and a handwritten note from the family of James Kim.

Oregon State Police spokesman Lt. Gregg Hastings said during a morning press conference that searchers had found several items of clothing they believe were left by Kim as clues for rescuers.

Found were two gray long-sleeve shirts, a red short-sleeve shirt, a wool sock, a blue girls skirt, and an Oregon state map cut up in pieces.

Hastings said authorities believe these were signs placed by James Kim.

The 35-year-old has been missing since Saturday morning when he set out on foot to seek help for his family.

Kim's wife, 30-year old Kati Kim, and daughters 4-year old Penelope and 7-month old Sabine were rescued Monday.

Josephine County Undersheriff Brian Anderson said the rescue packages would be dropped from helicopters along a route that they believe Kim might be taking to find help.

On Tuesday, searchers found a pair of gray pants that belonged to Kim.

His family told authorities that he was wearing them over a pair of jeans when he left his car on Saturday.

Fog is hampering air search efforts this morning.

A National Guard Helicopter with thermal imaging equipment didn’t find any new hot spots overnight.

25 specialty rescue crews will be searching the Big Windy Creek Drainage today.

That’s the area where authorities believe Kim is seeking shelter from the cold weather.

A Blackhawk medevac helicopter is standing by at the Medford Airport with a crew of flight medics and pilots skilled in hoist operations, patient stabilization and transport.

A 5-member Swift Water Rescue team will be deployed in Big Windy Creek working their way downstream in the water. This team will be hiking into their starting location.

Edge Wireless is completing the temporary installation of a cell tower in the area to provide for communication for the searchers. They also donated 30 cell phones for use by searchers to maintain communications.

A commercial satellite-imagery company told CNET Tuesday it is rerouting one of its satellites to fly over the wilderness area where rescue crews are searching for CNET editor James Kim.

GeoEye's Ikonos satellite was scheduled to fly over the Western seaboard at about 10:30 AM PT Wednesday at a distance from the Earth of about 423 miles, said Mark Brender, a spokesman for the Dulles, Va.-based GeoEye.

The satellite could record images of an area as large as 2,000 square kilometers.

"If you set a card table out on a street, we couldn't see it was a card table," Brender told CNET, "but we could let you know something that looked like a card table was there."

The satellite, which is used by the U.S. military for mapping and gathering intelligence, could be rendered useless if the weather is bad, said Brender.

The snow and large trees would also make it nearly impossible for a satellite image to pinpoint Kim's location, but it could help authorities plan their search efforts, Brender said.

Clarification: Wilsonville Chamber of Commerce – information provided earlier of a tip that a person at the chamber of commerce building provided a map and recommended travel routes has been determined to not be credible.

Interviews with Kati Kim revealed they chose this route after looking at a State of Oregon map Hastings said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Oregon State Police Northern Command Center at (800) 452-7888.

www.jamesandkati.com