On Saturday Sept 3 rd the Louisiana Governors Office made a request that Wisconsin Technical Rescue Operations Team respond in support of Search and Rescue efforts from Hurricane Katrina. The exact team mission was to be determined; either collapsed building search and rescue, or flood rescue, depending on the states most pressing need at the time
A crew made up of members of Wisconsin Technical Rescue Operations Team, and a mutual aid team; K-9 Emergency Response Teams (KERT) left by personnel vehicle, from Menasha at 5:30am, and arrived in Baton Rouge Louisiana at 3:30am Monday. The crew reported to Louisiana State University's basketball arena where they were housed for the deployment.. The Wisconsin team met up at this site with about 25 other responders from two other midwest teams they work with, one from Michigan and one from Ohio.
Monday Sept 5th at 5:30am the teams liaisoned with a representative from the governor's office, and made the 75 mile trip and reported to a forward staging area. Since they were official emergency workers, we could use lights and sirens on some of our vehicles, and were able to make this trip in just less than an hour. The teams were assigned to work in conjunction with a Federal Emergency Management Agency Urban Search and Rescue Team and the Texas Dept of Fish and Wildlife, in central part of the City of New Orleans (off of Interstate 10) to provide search and rescue of victims still trapped by the floodwaters from Katrina and the levee failures on Lake Pontchartrain. It was a pretty surreal area, dealing with water anywhere from 5 to 15 ft deep, and rows of houses half submerged. Nearly 75 patients were rescued, by multiple team boat crews, and medically stabilized at a medical field triage station run by the teams Medical Specialists. This was unusual for the team's Medical Specialists, as they are normally taking care for our own team members, but since there was no medical control in New Orleans it was up to them to assist in patient care as well.
Because of safety we could not conduct operations at night and returned to our Base Camp at LSU Stadium, by 8:30pm.
Tuesday Sept 6th: At 5:30am the teams liaison with the rep from the governors office and made the 75 mile trek to New Orleans and reported to the forward staging area. We were assigned to work in conjunction on this day with the Texas Dept. of Fish and Wildlife to perform Search and Rescue Operations in an area that was extremely difficult to conduct operations in with numerous fires, gunfire taking place, and deep contaminated water. Floodwaters in this area ranged in 3 to 20 foot deep levels in the teams search area. However the team reminded safe and close to 40 rescues were made, by our team's boat crew. Again because of safety we could not conduct operations at night and returned to our Base Camp at LSU Stadium, by 8:30pm.
Wednesday Sept 7th at 5:30am the team made the 75-mile trek to New Orleans and reported to forward staging area. While they were setting up to deploy their resources, the governors office stood us down, due to Marshal Law going into effect and mandatory evacuation it was determined that continued civilian and federal search and rescue operations were going to be to dangerous in the City of New Orleans. The teams were returned to base. The crews demobilized and returned to the midwest.
Then...
On Sept 25th members of Wisconsin Technical Rescue Operations Team and its Medical Reserve Corps were deployed to Jasper Texas per, that county in response to Hurricane Rita.
The team made up of Search, Rescue and Medical Specialists left by personnel vehicle, on Sunday and arrived in Jasper on Monday afternoon Sept 26th, and once again met up with our team's from Michigan and Ohio. The teams were immediately tasked with setting up a field triage and basic care clinic; our team's Medical Specialists by this time were the only medic's in town. Throughout the week our paramedic's and one team physician assisted the local emergency ambulance crews with running this site. Medical issues seen and treated acute serious illness/injury: including broken limbs, snakebites, diabetic patients, and one respiratory arrest due to anaphylactic shock. General illness: including rashes, respiratory infections, and animal bites.
By Tuesday the teams' Search Specialist and Rescue Specialist were in the field doing urban search and rescue operations, and accessing rural neighborhoods that were cut off from the hurricane to assess resident's safety, mostly in rural areas that had yet been searched. This operation continued 12 hours a day until Saturday Oct 1st. when the teams' demobilized and returned to the Midwest.
Over 100 patients were treated at the clinic by our Medical Specialist's and our Rescue Specialist assisted in over a dozen rescues.
WTROT would like to thank the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation under authorization from Gov Blanco who deployed our team. Without their help, our mission to this event would have not been possible.
Also special Thank You to Search Systems Inc., Rib Mountain Fire Dept., Abrams Fire Dept, and Town of Menasha Fire Dept. for their sponsorship with equipment for these deployments.
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