Austin fire deploying squad to Beaumont to help during Tropical Storm Barry

Austin American-Statesman (TX)

When members of an Austin Fire Department water squad think back to Hurricane Harvey, they remember the water.

"It just kept coming," said Austin fire specialist Ty Baker.

Baker was one of a six-person team that headed to Beaumont on Friday morning as water is again expected to threaten East Texas as Tropical Storm Barry inches closer to becoming a hurricane. Barry is expected to make landfall along the Louisiana Coast as a hurricane early Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that state agencies were preparing aircraft, vehicles and rescue boats ahead of the storm.

Austin fire Lt. Chris Layton said his team is being deployed in support of the Texas State Operations Center. The crew will be stationed in Beaumont in the coming days to assist with rescues, flood evacuations and damage assessment, Layton said.

The team is bringing along two swift water rescue boats, which are made of inflatable rubber and have a 40-horsepower motor, and other supplies to be able to stay in the area for up to two weeks, Layton said. The team is also prepared to go to Louisiana if officials there request help from Texas, Layton said.

"We will go until the mission's complete," he said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency and President Donald Trump has declared a federal state of emergency for Louisiana as flooding has ravaged parts of the state. Thousands were without power in New Orleans on Wednesday after 7 inches of rain fell on the area in six hours. Barry could bring more than 18 inches of rainfall to parts of Louisiana as the storm moves inland, the Associated Press reported.

During Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Layton said an Austin Fire Department team was doing rescues for 12 days. Baker described the experience as being like the Stone Age, because they were without power, cell phones and other basic things like bedding, for long periods of time.

"It was just a lot of water. A lot of people needed evacuations, a lot of people needed help and we just worked and worked and worked," Layton said.

But Layton said his team is prepared for Tropical Storm Barry, even though there's no way to tell just how much water it could bring to Texas.

"This is what we train for," he said. "Every time we go out, we learn things that we can do better or we take those experiences and apply them to the next operation that's going on."

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