A Beverly-based search and rescue squad is on its way to the Gulf Coast to aid in rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Laura.
A 14-vehicle convoy left Beverly at 6 a.m. Thursday, with 45 members of The Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 aboard. It is one of 26 such teams across the country managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“It’s a combination of police officer, firefighters, civilians, engineers, doctors, K-9 handlers,” said Tom Gatzunis a planning section chief for the task force. “We can conduct heavy rescues, wide-area search, water search and rescue operations.”
Hurricane Laura made landfall as a Category 4 storm early Thursday, bringing 150-mile-an-hour winds and a massive storm surge to the Gulf Coast. It has weakened as its moved inland but continues to deliver strong winds and heavy rains in Louisiana and Texas. At least two deaths have been attributed to the storm thus far, according to officials.
In recent years, Massachusetts Taskforce 1 – which has been around for more than three decades – has been deployed to Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina, New York and New Jersey during Hurricane Sandy, and Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.
Gatzunis said the taskforce’s search and rescue specialists, drawn from across New England, are among the “best of the best” in emergency situations like the one presented by Hurricane Laura. “And we know that if the tables were turned and it was our loved ones who were in harm’s way that we would want the best of the best there to help them and support them. And each of us do it for that very reason.”
The team is expected to arrive in Louisiana around noon Friday.
