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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Richard Rael with theVOA Special English program, Explorations. Today we tell aboutAmerican rescue and recovery teams. They assist after explosions,earthquakes, storms and other natural disasters in many parts of theworld.
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VOICE ONE:
It is August seventeenth, nineteen-ninety-nine, in Izmit, Turkey.An earthquake measuring seven-point-four on the Richter Scale haskilled at least seventeen-thousand people. Dogs are running throughthe remains of fallen buildings. The animals are seeking the smellof human beings trapped in the wreckage. At this time, however, itdoes not seem that any more people will be found alive.
VOICE TWO:
But then, German workers signal about a possible survivor.Experts from the United States also discover a twenty-seven-year-oldwoman alive in the ruins of a building. These workers are from theFire and Rescue Department of Fairfax County, Virginia. They spendmany hours moving wreckage out of the way. They reach the woman andfive other people, still alive. Then they hear of a six-year-old boywho is still trapped under a fallen building. They hurry to helporganize yet another rescue.
VOICE ONE:
Such intense and dangerous work is not unusual for the UrbanSearch and Rescue Task Force from Fairfax County, Virginia. Itsmembers have saved people from fallen buildings in many places. Theteam has worked in Armenia, the Philippines, Mexico, Taiwan andOklahoma City, Oklahoma, in addition to its home area nearWashington, D.C.
The Fairfax force is one of two groups that the United Statesgovernment sends to help in disasters in other countries. It is alsoone of twenty-eight organizations deployed in disasters across theUnited States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.
VOICE TWO:
For example, Fairfax team members served on September eleventh,two-thousand-one, after terrorists attacked the United States.Hijacked airplanes struck the World Trade Center in New York Cityand the Department of Defense near Washington, D-C. Another airplanecrashed in Pennsylvania.More than three-thousand people were killed,including more than one-hundred-eighty people at the Pentagon. Manyothers were injured.
The Fairfax County team was among the first groups to arrive atthe Pentagon after the attack. So was the task force from nearbyMontgomery County, Maryland. They arrived to find a huge fire, theremains of the airplane and people trapped in the building.
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VOICE ONE:
The dangerous duties of the Urban Search and Rescue Task Forcealways begin with bad news. Such news came from Africa on Augustseventh, nineteen-ninety-eight. Terrorists had bombed the UnitedStates embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The explosions took placewithin minutes of each other.
In Nairobi, the embassy building and many others in the area wereseverely damaged. Two-hundred-forty-seven people were laterconfirmed dead. Thousands more were hurt. Several workers weremissing.
VOICE TWO:
Rescue Specialist Rex Strickland of the Fairfax task force wasamong Americans sent to Nairobi to help. Mister Strickland recordedthe events.
First, two United States government agencies organized deploymentof the Fairfax force. They were the United States Agency forInternational Development and the Office of Foreign Disaster Aid.They acted after the American Ambassador to Kenya, PrudenceBushnell, asked for help. At the time, the Fairfax task force hadone-hundred-thirty members. Sixty-three of them were on a plane forKenya the day after the attack. Another plane loaded with most oftheir equipment followed.
VOICE ONE:
The Fairfax search and rescue workers set up an operations centeron embassy property. United States Marines guarded the area as theteam members searched for survivors. During the first search, theyfound no survivors. But it took another day and a half to confirmthat there was no one left alive in the wrecked embassy.
The Fairfax team members worked day and night for eight days.They divided into two groups – one for day and one for night. Sixexperts worked on the wreckage at a time. They worked withone-hundred-seventy members of the Israeli Army Search and RescueTeam to recover bodies. They searched the embassy grounds and thearea nearby. A French team of ten people also helped.
VOICE TWO:
Trained dogs and a camera called the SearchCam assisted the teammembers. The camera permitted them to see into spaces they could notenter. Experts removed the broken stone of the remains of thebuilding with machines called Stanley breakers. At the same time,the Israelis used heavy equipment to remove wreckage.
Local Kenyan citizens also offered to clear wreckage. MisterStrickland praised their help. He said they permitted the search andrescue workers to move on to other areas to look for victims.
On August twelfth, five days after the bombing, the Israelisended their work. The Americans stayed until August sixteenth. Thenthey left the country. An operations director said the work in Kenyawas very difficult because they could not save anyone.
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VOICE ONE:
Fairfax County, Virginia and the Metro-Dade County FireDepartment in Miami, Florida first formed urban search and rescueforces in the nineteen-eighties. These teams were trained especiallyfor rescue work in fallen buildings.
Today, the Federal Emergency Management Administration deploystwenty-eight such organizations. FEMA says the value of increasingAmerica’s search and rescue abilities has been proven over time. Itpoints to lives saved after the bombing of the federal building inOklahoma City, Oklahoma in nineteen-ninety-five. Another successfulrescue effort was at the Northridge, California earthquake innineteen-ninety-four.
VOICE TWO:
FEMA deploys search and rescue forces that have two teams. Eachteam requires thirty-one people, special equipment and dogs.Commanders plan the operations. Technical and structural expertswork to make rescue attempts safe for the rescuers. Searchers lookfor victims, alive or dead. Rescuers try to pull the victims fromthe wreckage. Medical workers treat the injured.
Dogs do an important part of thework of urban search and rescue teams. Dogs can move into areas thatare too small or too dangerous for humans. Their sharp sense ofsmell finds victims. Then they signal their success to theirhandlers. Some dogs are taught to bark when they make a discovery.Others lie down.
VOICE ONE:
Dogs belonging to FEMA’s search and rescue teams are trained tomeet national requirements. The dogs and their handlers must passdifficult examinations. If they succeed, they serve as AdvancedCanine Teams.
Advanced Canine Teams helped rescue efforts after the terroristattack in New York City two years ago. On that deadly Septembereleventh, people and dogs worked together in the World Trade Centerwreckage, and for days afterward.
First, structural engineers examined the area. They decided whereto explore first. Some structures were in danger of falling onvictims or trapping rescuers. Next, experts in dangerous materialslooked for airplane fuels and other dangerous fluids. Then theirhandlers commanded the dogs to search for trapped people or bodies.
VOICE TWO:
Three golden retrievers and a black Labrador retriever were amongthe dogs working through the wreckage. They belonged to Urban Searchand Rescue Task Force Seven of Sacramento, California. Thefifty-nine men and three women of the team had had only six hours toprepare for the dangerous work ahead.
Once in New York, they started twenty-four-hour operations at theTishman Center. This building had forty-seven levels. It fell soonafter the two Trade Center towers. The Sacramento force supportedNew York City fire fighters and police.
The Sacramento teams worked twenty-four-hours a day for ten days.They found no survivors. Still, they performed an important service.The rescue workers made sure that no one lay unaided and forgottenin the ruins.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson and produced by MarioRitter. This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Richard Rael. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America.