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    VATF assists storm victims

    FEMA task force does search & rescue

    Photo By Sgt. Juanita Philip | Chris Holmes, with the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Task Force, Federal...... read more read more

    VIRGIN ISLANDS (Sept. 22, 2017) -- A hyperactive hurricane season has crippled the Virgin Islands, with all three islands being affected by Hurricanes Irma or Maria. Even the most resilient people will eventually need assistance.

    Many agencies and organizations have moved to support the Virgin Island National Guard and the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency, and by extension, the people of the Virgin Islands.

    The Virginia Task Force One Urban Search and Rescue, Federal Emergency Management Agency has been in the territory since Hurricane Irma struck St. Thomas and St. John.

    “We knew that St. Croix was heavily impacted on the Southwest corner of the island from Hurricane Maria," said Kit Hessel, VATF-1 leader.
    "We were deployed down to this area to do wide-area search and rescue missions.”

    The Task Force deployed more than 40 personnel -29 search and rescue members, six force protection personnel, five Incident Support Team members and three canines.

    “From our experience in St. Thomas and St. John, we knew that a 30-person ground team would be a good number to put on the island to give the initial recon.”
    “We knew that this would be a good footprint to work the whole island,” Hessel stated.

    The team has been on ground since right after the Category 5 storm came through St. Croix, and quickly divided the island into sections for their missions.

    “We’ve been on the ground since Thursday, the remaining personnel came on Friday and we started operations,” he said.
    “We divided the island into three divisions-Alpha, Bravo and Charlie with each team being named Blue Squad 1, 2 or 3[respectively].”

    The team was actually staged in Puerto Rico since Hurricane Irma to offer aid to St. Thomas and St. John. Many members of the team had been working the mission since Hurricane Harvey.

    The work was at times challenging for the teams; especially Blue Squad 1 which worked Frederiksted and the Rainforest area.

    “The main line was pretty open running East to West, but as we traversed North on the island, through the rainforest, we found out that multiple trees were
    down in excess of anywhere from 300 yards to three-quarters of a mile in certain areas,” said Hessel.
    “We worked with the military assessment teams to identify those areas and see if we could get some trees removed so that we could gain access to actually conduct our search and rescue mission.”

    The team met with success despite their challenges. “In conjunction with the JOC [Joint Operations Center] and the hospital we located 17 at risk people who needed immediate medical care,” he said.

    Dan Hanfling, MD, medical team manager VATF-1, expounded on Hessel’s statement. “Patients who needed certain treatments were identified and we set out to locate them.

    The team was very proud of their accomplishments to set the island to rights.
    “The accomplishment that I think we can demonstrate was that we made contact with the Juan F. Luis Hospital, we were able to get an assessment of the hospital,” Hanfling said.
    “Urban Search and Rescue helps to assess critical infrastructure, and so this was one of the top priorities to make sure that the hospital was intact.”

    He spoke highly of the hospital management team and their disaster plan. “The hospital management team made the decision to evacuate all the patients from the hospital, they were really on top of things.”

    Hanfling also made contact with the VI Department of Health to hear about the preparedness and response activities from the local health department perspective.

    “I also coordinated with NORTHCOM [U.S. Northern Command] in their mission of defense support to civilian authority to identify what NORTHCOM’s plans were to support the medical needs on the island

    The team covered almost all of the island seeking out medically at risk people.
    “We feel very comfortable having covered 95 percent of the islands by ground or air to find any people who might have been in distress, or had medical needs or had been somewhat in a search and rescue need,” Hessel said.

    Hanfling backed up the team leader wholeheartedly. “We tried our hardest to deliver hope back to the people of St. Croix. From what we have observed, they are resilient and will come through this stronger.”

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    NEWS INFO

    Date Taken: 09.22.2017
    Date Posted: 09.25.2017 20:08
    Story ID: 249584
    Location: VIRGIN ISLANDS, US
    Hometown: FAIRFAX, VA, US
    Hometown: FREDERIKSTED, VI
    Hometown: ST. CROIX, VI

    Web Views: 140
    Downloads: 0

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