Mounted search and rescue

["Jorene Downs" <Jorene@CEOates.com>]

I should have been more clear. Sorry, been rather intense the past few days. 
;-/

Many USAR Task Forces, DMAT, various military, etc., have been performing 
rescue, providing medical assistance, etc.  The only "deploy now" personnel 
currently responding or preparing to respond to New Orleans are military.  I 
suspect non-military rescuers have been diverted to less hazardous mission 
locations. But IIRC the key response in New Orleans will be primarily to 
restore order and transport refugees from known large collection points for 
evacuation. My reliable source indicates once the situation (armed looters, 
snipers, etc.) is more stable and safer for rescuers, additional 
non-military resources will be tapped for New Orleans.

Logistics to provide food, water, etc., for survivors and responding 
personnel continues to be a very challenging task. ("An army marches on its 
stomach" is also true for disaster response - supplies for responders are 
also needed, including medical support, communications, etc.) As more access 
is cleared, MSAR in the region might be useful using trucks and large horse 
trailers to haul in supplies or other transport. Work through your local 
operational area and state level to coordinate any response. Logistics to 
support an effort of this kind should include staging fuel for vehicles and 
pre-identified safe travel routes.

Meanwhile, huge shelters are being established along with smaller ones and 
Red Cross is actively recruiting for volunteers, including medical.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jorene Downs
Tulare Co SAR - Hasty Team ICP Team
www.ceoates.com/sar
Tulare-Kings CERT
www.tk-cert.org

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Una Smith" <una.smith@att.net>
> Jorene Downs wrote:
> > At this time only military are actively deployed.
>
> New Mexico Task Force 1, an Urban SAR team, left Tuesday and
> arrived in Louisiana Wednesday.  If they are doing work yet,
> I cannot say, but given that most of the individuals locally
> who were deployed in this team are handlers of cadaver dogs,
> I would say their task is body recovery.