Valley’s ‘best’ to aid Katrina victims

Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005 | 10:55 a.m.

Described as "the best of the best," 70 firefighters, rescue workers, doctors and structural engineers, plus Metro Police search dogs, left Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon in a convoy to aid frantic rescue efforts in areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"Everybody's watched the TV news, they know what they're getting into," said John Grana, a Clark County Fire Department captain and one of the leaders of the search and rescue task force. "They will assess the situation when they get there."

Nevada Task Force-1, based in Las Vegas and one of 28 teams scattered across the country, is made up mainly of Clark County firefighters, but has emergency room doctors, Metro search-and-rescue specialists handling four dogs trained to sniff out victims and structural engineers to rescue survivors still buried in debris, Grana said.

Team members are likely to face flooding, looters, snakes, alligators and diseases during their time in the devastated area, Grana said.

"This is the first time in history that all 28 units have been activated," Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said as he watched the team load gear from a warehouse without air conditioning at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"This is the best of the best," Reilly said. "They're ready. They're not happy with what they're going to find."

The team loaded their gear into 12 vehicles that would spend 30 to 34 hours driving straight through to the stricken region.

Eight teams had been deployed from Mississippi on Tuesday, and Nevada, California and Washington deployed a total of 10 teams on Wednesday.

To protect Southern Nevada while the team rescues hurricane victims, Reilly said that a backup team of 20 to 30 members will stay in Las Vegas.

Asked why rescuers and their 50,000 pounds of equipment and supplies could not be flown into Louisiana or Mississippi, Reilly said that they had to take trucks because team members have to be totally self-sufficient.

Team members packed gas masks, gear to respond to victims, Gatorade, Meals Ready to Eat, bottled water and multiple packages of toilet paper, among other items.

Many of the members had responded to the World Trade Center disaster on Sept. 11, 2001, Reilly said.

Firefighter Gene Fordsham was one of those called upon on 9/11.

"Eerie, simply eerie," Fordsham said of his experience at the World Trade Center.

"We went there and it was hard work," said rescuer Aaron Smith, who also responded to the terrorist attack.

The team has food, water and supplies to sustain itself for 10 days to two weeks, Fordsham said. "We know there's no water, no electricity, no nothing," he said.

Crane operator Tom Crabtree of Ironworkers Local 433 said his brother was visiting Las Vegas from Mississippi and got home the day after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

"His house was OK, except for downed trees," Crabtree said. "My own heart says I wish something like that would never happen.

"We all have our own lives, but these people need this help. If we were down and out, I'd hope someone would come help us."

Ironworker Darrell Fagg, also of Local 433, said emergency teams had learned that firefighters could not operate cranes to lift rubble away from rescue efforts at the Trade Center.

"After all, we build the high rises, we understand how they are made," Fagg said.

Some were new to a real-life rescue effort but have gone through grueling training.

"We're excited," said Bryan Wert, a structural specialist trained to break through mounds of concrete debris. "We're there for the safety of rescue workers."

Before leaving the warehouse, every member of the team was sworn in as a federal employee by Ernie Giovannoni, a retired active duty Air Force member who now works civil service.

"Even if it's only 70 going, that's 70 more pairs of eyes down there," Giovannoni said.

While in the Air Force, Giovannoni said he had been stationed in Guam and has a background in major disaster relief after surviving two or three typhoons with 180 mph winds.

"As time goes by, the Nevada response team will face more injuries, less food and more infections," Giovannoni said.

Giovannoni noted that the Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26 was bad, "but it just got worse in the aftermath."

The team was ordered not to drink alcohol, not to call their families on cell phones and to watch out for each other. In the disaster zone, they would communicate by walkie talkies, rather than cell phones.

County Commissioner Tom Collins in cowboy hat and blue jeans wished the team well before they left Las Vegas.

"The reward you're going to get from helping other people will last a long time into the future," Collins said.

Steve Smith, who will become Clark County fire chief on Feb. 1, said, "Be safe and come back as one team."

Nurse Jo Ellen Hannom said she was attending an emergency services conference in New Orleans with thousands of rescuers, but left Friday. All Clark County Fire Department members had returned to Las Vegas safely from New Orleans, she said.

Hannom helped other medical staff draw blood and conduct physical exams on the team members.

"But I wonder what happened to the thousands of first responders down there," Hannom said.

Clark County is setting up a link so that those back home can follow the rescue team's efforts. It can be accessed through the county's Web site, at www.accessclarkcounty.com.