Friday, Sept. 9, 2005 | 9:54 a.m.
When critical care provider Ed Enriquez learned that Nevada's medical strike team had been placed on alert to respond to Hurricane Katrina's aftermath at the Louisiana Superdome, his wife started "freaking out."
From television news reports, Enriquez learned that shots were being fired at rescuers.
"She doesn't turn on the TV anymore," he said Thursday night during a meeting of the Nevada 1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team.
Enriquez, who works at University Medical Center, has trained to take care of burn victims. Although he did not go with the first five-member team, he said he is ready and willing to go.
That's true for Jim Wanser, team safety officer, who said he had joined the team more than two years ago. He said his bag has been packed for two weeks.
Team members were anxious about conditions in New Orleans. They asked veterans who had returned Tuesday night from the Superdome about what conditions were like at the scene of America's worst disaster. They also needed to know what to put in their backpacks besides clean underwear.
The dozen standby team members attending the meeting at Palace Station know they could be called at any moment.
"What about a place to get a decent meal? A hotel room? Conditions I understand were horrible," said Dan Sosa, a squad leader who has worked at natural disasters and airplane crashes for almost 20 years.
The strike team laughed at first, then gave practical advice from the front lines of the disaster. The team included Nancy Newell, Karen Strutynski and Melody Reid.
Bill Botos, a hazardous materials specialist, said his friends and family understand the intense work the team does.
"There's a remarkable network between emergency workers' families, and they support each other," Botos said after the meeting at the Palace Station.
For emergency room technician Eric Sanchez, his father's military training is helping the son prepare to leave his Valley Hospital job and respond to the hurricane's aftermath.
"I've been waiting the whole week to go," Sanchez said.
The Superdome was the "worst of the worst" places to launch their efforts, Newell said.
"It's hard for families on this side of things, wondering if we were alright," Newell said. Once the team had arrived, they could not call their families in Las Vegas.
The team survived flooding, the loss of their equipment and supplies, fires inside the Superdome and snipers firing at rescuers on the roof.
At one point the Nevada team took cover behind a brick wall as gunfire erupted near the helicopter tarmac while a sharpshooter tried to protect them, Newell said.
Dr. John Kiley, a Las Vegas psychiatrist and a doctor of internal medicine, has agreed to stay in New Orleans for a month, Newell said. Kiley and the team had expected to be in New Orleans for two weeks, but they came home in nine days.
Other teams "burned out in three or four days," she said.
"This mission is a lot bigger than the World Trade Center and people are being found alive," Newell said. Kiley's base of operations has seen 60,000 people since the Federal Emergency Management Agency began operations after the Aug. 29 disaster.
The team lost their personal backpacks when the 17th Street levee broke and water poured into the Superdome, Newell said. They had to evacuate in two minutes, she said.
They found their belongings the night before they flew home on Tuesday.
Newell had worn a helmet with an eagle and the American flag painted on it, a precious item given to her after work in a previous Florida hurricane. "It meant everything to me, that helmet would protect me," she said.
The helmet was lost in the back of a truck.
The team's first shift lasted 51 hours as 900 patients were airlifted out of the Superdome. Then they had six hours to sleep in rising floodwaters, blaring fire alarms and flashing strobe lights. The second shift lasted 31 hours.
Between water, fires and noise, it was impossible to sleep, even with earplugs.
"Sleep? I don't know what that is," Strutynski said.
The 107 medical disaster teams nationwide are becoming more important to aid federal agencies and state and local emergency responders. Nevada's 70-member team began seven years ago as a seed of an idea from Newell and is growing.
Volunteers must train and be prepared to go at a moment's notice, said Jim Coyle, the team's chaplain. The team needs more doctors, nurses and physician's assistants.
The team will meet at 7 p.m. on Sept. 19 on the second floor of the Palace Station at Sahara Avenue and Rancho Drive.
Coyle said the key to the team's first response was its commitment and compassion for one another.
Registered nurse Melody Reid said she always carried a flashlight, bags of peanuts, bottled water, helmet, goggles and gloves.
"We were lucky because we had that ever-ready mentality," Reid said.
Yet it comforted her to come home to the routine chaos of family life, Reid said.
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