As the USAR teams are steadily returning to their homes this week, the unofficial and incomplete count of “live saves” by the rescuers is 134 with 47 of them made by the U.S. teams. That is a number that will make the teams feel like they have been successful in their response and efforts. I have seen so many times where a team has been deployed to another part of the world and after 3 days of searching only coming up with one or two survivors. Sometimes there are none. Usually the massive devastation that required the assistance in the first place is so heavy that it just isn’t possible for anyone to live long enough in the wreckage to be retrieved. Keep in mind that the time required to muster the team, get the equipment loaded onto a plane that had to be brought it for the mission, and then transporting to the scene will take two days to begin with.
This event in Haiti is one that all of the teams in the world have been preparing for. An unbelievably widespread destruction involving hundreds of thousands of people coupled with the usual third-world, sub-standard construction. One thing that helped is the proximity of the country to the U. S. and we were able to get a lot of help on the scene more quickly than usual. And we have all learned that this type of special team is now found in many, many countries as we saw video reports showing well-trained and equipped teams from places like France, Chile, UK and others.
Something else that was new to this international response was the inclusion of volunteer teams. Two that I know of were a structural team from Germany and a medical assistance team from Brooklyn, New York. The USAR team from Germany is not from one specific fire or rescue department, but is a national all-volunteer organization composed of F&R members from many departments that is funded completely by donations from the public and businesses. The team has been tested and certified by the same UN sanctioning organization that certifies all the others. Their quick-response structural team arrived in Haiti with 2 tons of equipment and worked for five days before being rotated out. The organization, International Disaster Response Germany reg. Assoc., is called @fire and is prepared for wildland firefighting assistance also.
@FIRE has an English-language website that goes into detail about their organization and has an extensive photo gallery. CLICK HERE to read through their website that also includes a handy link to donate funds to them.
The medical assistance team assembled by the Bedford-Stuyvesant Volunteer Rescue Squad in Brooklyn consisted of 144 medical doctors, EMT’s and nurses bringing their own medical supplies and arriving on a charter flight paid for by a church. They were immediately assigned to work in the General Hospital in Port au Prince and within hours they had set over 300 fractures and delivered two babies. Their duties included setting IV’s and administering medications while staying in a make-shift tent just outside the hospital.
NY Daily News photo
These stories of selfless help rushing in to assist in an unbelievable effort have to make everybody proud of how these previously-unknown people have helped out the cause of humanity.
Let’s give them all a “Well done!” round of applause before we start our daily equipment check. I’ll get the coffee started.
