A
group of 40 New York
police officers and
40 New York
firefighters, many
of them heroes of
Sept. 11 and
Hurricane Katrina,
jumped into the
rescue efforts in
Haiti on Saturday
and immediately
started pulling
people from the
rubble.
Photo: FDNY chief
Joe Downey shortly
before leaving for
Haiti.
The squad touched
down in
Port-au-Prince on
Saturday after a
two-day wait for
clearance to land at
the destroyed city's
overloaded airport.
By early evening, 16
members of the team
were working to
rescue five people
trapped on the
bottom floor of a
three-story grocery
store that collapsed
during the
earthquake, police
spokesman Paul J.
Browne said.
They were trying to
cut through concrete
blocks to reach the
survivors, who told
rescuers they had
been living on food
and water in the
store, Browne said.
The team is being
led by deputy police
inspector Robert
Lukach, who dug
through the rubble
of the twin towers
after Sept. 11, and
Joe Downey, a New
York City fire chief
who worked the 9/11
effort and also led
rescue teams during
Hurricanes Katrina
and Gustav.
Now, the men are
leading a team of 80
specialists on a
search-and-rescue
mission through the
wrecked mass of
concrete and metal
in Haiti's
earthquake-ravaged
capital, using
technology that has
been improved since
the Sept. 11
attacks.
Before leaving,
Lukach, who serves
in the New York
Police Department's
elite Emergency
Services Unit, said
he was more
optimistic about
finding survivors in
Haiti than he was at
ground zero.
"That quickly became
a recovery mission.
But this is still a
rescue mission, and
we are hoping for
the best," he said.
He said that even
days after the
quake, he is hopeful
there are pockets in
the rubble where
people may still be
alive, although the
crew was worried
they would arrive
too late, after too
much waiting around.
The team, which
plans to spend at
least a week in
Haiti, is one of 28
federal urban search
and rescue teams
around the United
States that can
mobilize during a
disaster.
They are bringing
three
tractor-trailers
full of equipment,
including sound gear
to listen for
survivors trapped
below wreckage,
cutting tools that
can smash through
concrete and shore
up rubble as they
burrow down, and
rescue dogs.
"We can be more
prepared for this
because we're going
in with more
knowledge," Lukach
said.
The cataclysmic
earthquake rocked
the impoverished
island nation
Tuesday. The Red
Cross estimates that
45,000 to 50,000
people were killed.
As humanitarian aid
and troops have
arrived from around
the globe, the focus
has already begun to
shift to getting aid
to survivors.
Downey's father, Ray
Downey, died in the
line of duty on
Sept. 11. He was the
former head of the
fire department's
Special Operations
Command and a
renowned expert in
search-and-rescue
and building
collapses.
Downey has followed
in his dad's
footsteps as a
special operations
battalion chief.
When he dug through
the rubble in Haiti
after Gustav hit in
2008, the collapsed
buildings were
mostly wood-frame,
rather than
concrete, he said,
which made it easier
to find people
living in air
pockets below the
wrecked buildings.
"As each day passes
... it gets more
difficult to find
survivors," Downey
said. "But they've
had plenty of
collapses in this
country, and people
have lived
seven-to-10 days,
and even longer.
We're hopeful."
The team, made of 40
NYPD officers and 40
from the fire
department, receives
extensive training
in structural
collapse, concrete
collapses and trench
rescues, as well as
high-angle and water
rescues.
They regularly deal
with structural
collapses in New
York.
"We are to some
degree used to
this," said Lukach.
"We respond to
small-scale
disasters all the
time."
The team hit the
ground in
Port-au-Prince with
enough food, water
and masks to keep
them sustained for
72 hours as they
work down into the
mass of rubble.
Downey said they
were also arriving
with hope.
"We gotta get to
work," he said.
more>>>
*For
New York 9/11 Rescue
Team, Haiti Brings
It All Back
*NYC
Team Rescues 4 From
Rubble in Haiti
*Sept.11
Heroes Pull Haitians
from Rubble; New
York City Cops and
Firefighters Lead
Rescue Teams
*NYC
Heroes Attempt to
Rescue Haiti Victims
*FDNY,
NYPD Team in Haiti
*FDNY-NYPD
Team in Amazing
3-Hour Rescue of Man
Trapped Under Layers
of Concrete
