I’m getting off to a late start again this morning. I just added an update to the French LODD story from yesterday, the FF has been identified and the father of two young children perished on his birthday. Scroll on down a few postings to see the latest.
There is an avalanche of news coming out of Haiti about the USAR’s these past couple of days. There are dozens of American teams down there now, mostly units that have never been deployed outside the country before. FEMA has two basic distinctions between the USAR teams with about half-dozen of them assigned as International teams and the remainder of the 28 teams usually limited to working within the borders of the U. S. But the magnitude (and likely the proximity as well) has encouraged them to deploy even more teams to assist. Along with the U. S. there are similar teams working there from UK, France, Germany, Chile, Canada and others.
Something that I have observed is the fantastic success rate that they are achieving down there. It is not at all unusual for a team to spend 4 or 5 days in a disaster zone and only retrieve one or two people who are still alive. But in Port au Prince they are pulling them out in batches, as many as five or more from individual sites. That kind of success has to be especially rewarding to the rescuers. Most of you know that “pumped up” feeling you get when you make a good “save,” just imagine having a string of such successes.
If you want to view a collection of videos that are centered on the rescue teams, I’ll refer you to the STATter911 website HERE. As you know by now, Dave Statter’s website is hosted by a major tv station in Washington, WUSA-TV and using the resources of their news gathering operation, Dave’s colleague Emily Cyr has been loading video reports on these operations onto his website with at least a dozen or more on there already. You’ll find them over on the right sidebar near the top of the page where you see the video player. Just underneath it is a scrolling list of thumbnail images where you can browse through and watch them when you get the opportunity.
We’d better get started on this equipment check now. I’ll get more coffee going.
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