Bay staters off to the rescue of Texas

Aug. 28--Bay State emergency crews trained in above-water rescues hit the road to Houston last night, heeding a desperate call for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to put boots on what dry ground remains in a region bracing for more than 4 feet of rain.

"We're trained, we're ready," said engineer Thomas Gatzunis, spokesman for Massachusetts Task Force 1 and a former commissioner of the state Department of Public Safety.

Fourteen of FEMA's Beverly-based urban search-and-rescue team's 240 members set out at 6 p.m. in the hopes of arriving in the Houston area sometime today, Gatzunis said. The group is traveling in a four-vehicle caravan with four boats, communications equipment, gas detectors, generators and collapsible stretchers. If the situation escalates, the team will send search-and-rescue dogs and more manpower.

Gatzunis said they'll power through whatever access challenges await them in an area already declared a major disaster by President Trump.

"They will rally at a point and either use high-water vehicles or deploy the boats," he said.

FEMA gave the crew of firefighters, police, medical personnel and civilians their activation orders at 3:15 p.m., specifically requesting a scaled-down, mission-ready package.

In fact, FEMA is responding to the unprecedented flooding by activating all 28 of its teams' water-rescue operations nationwide, including Texas Task Force 1.

"The maximum deployment is typically 14 days, but we'll never say no," Gatzunis said. "We'll stay as long as we're needed."

Hyannis Fire Department Capt. Thomas Kenney, who helped lead Massachusetts Task Force 1 into the horror of Ground Zero in New York City after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, last night called Harvey "a cataclysmic event" that will require not only special gear to protect rescuers from the environment, but decontamination as well.

"This isn't just dirty water, this is very dirty water," Kenney said. "You have gas stations, oil tanks, cemeteries ... All of this stuff is going to be coming out of the ground and floating."

Kenney said even if not all of the teams are put to work, FEMA "has to move the assets."

"If it keeps getting worse and they haven't called for the assets, they're that much farther behind," he said, adding that Massachusetts Task Force 1 was scheduled for its refresher training on water rescues next week.

"I guess it would be a cliche to say these guys are true professionals, but they are," Kenney said. "Their intent is just to get there and do the most they can for the most people. They're not concerned for themselves. They're just not."

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