38 in Nevada task force head to Louisiana to aid Ida efforts
A team of firefighters and civilians from the Las Vegas Valley are headed to Louisiana to offer assistance in response to Hurricane Ida.
Clark County spokesman Erik Pappa said the firefighters make up most of an aid team known as the Nevada Task Force 1 Urban Search and Rescue. Members consist of firefighters from the Clark County, Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas fire departments. The team is funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is one of 28 around the nation.
The group departed from Las Vegas for the Baton Rouge area early Sunday afternoon.
“They made the call to us this morning so we are sending out 38 personnel, which is what they (FEMA) asked us for,” said Clark County fire Chief John Steinbeck. “What we think we are going to do on the ground is immediate rescues. What we end up doing on the ground is whatever the community needs. On these trips before we’ve done everything from humanitarian assistance for people to evacuations to of course traditional rescues.”
Steinbeck said the team could end up “assisting local response agencies with their day-to-day calls because they are overwhelmed. Clearing debris, anything and everything.”
Ida rapidly grew in strength Sunday, becoming a Category 4 hurricane just before hitting the Louisiana coast near one of the country’s main centers for oil drilling.
As Ida moved through some of the warmest ocean water in the world in the northern Gulf of Mexico, its top winds grew by 45 mph to 150 mph in five hours. The system made landfall early Sunday afternoon on the same date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.
The local task force boarded vans, trucks and semis for a 24-hour drive to Louisiana. One of the members of the team is civilian Alex Martinez, who works for Las Vegas Paving Corp. Martinez offers the task force multiple skills including heavy equipment operation and truck driving.
“It feels really good to put my skills and my knowledge to a service other than just working,” Martinez said. “It feels really good inside. Every deployment I have been on is different, so I am really just open for any options.”
Clark County fire Capt. Jasmine Ghazinour works as a logistics coordinator and water rescue specialist for the task force. She said the keys to a successful deployment are training and preparation.
“We do prep work now, but we have to be out the door fast,” Ghazinour said. “Hurricanes don’t give us much advance warning, a structural collapse even less. We are constantly keeping our cache updated with things you wouldn’t expect. Batteries go all the time. Tools need to be run. They can’t just sit … Our water has to be constantly changed out. Things like our food has to be constantly kept up to date.”
Ghazinour said COVID-19 precautions are being taken by the team. Each member has extra masks and plenty of hand sanitizer.
“We are constantly keeping our training up to date,” Ghazinour said. “Having classes, working on things so we are ready to go the second we get an activation.”
Steinbeck said he’s proud of the Southern Nevada team providing aid to those in need along the Gulf Coast.
“They will work very hard over the next 10 to 14 days,” Steinbeck said.
Contact Glenn Puit by email at gpuit@reviewjournal.com. Follow @GlennatRJ on Twitter. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
