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Specialists in urban search and rescue, including first responders from the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, departed the Bay Area on Wednesday, Aug. 22, headed for Oahu, the third largest of the Hawaiian Islands, ahead of the expected arrival of Hurricane Lane.
The hurricane is currently a Category 4 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center, and is expected to “move very close to or over” the main Hawaiian islands from today (Thursday, Aug. 23) through Saturday, Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman of the Menlo Park district said in a statement.
Weather predictions have the storm weakening slowly over the next 48 hours, but include estimates of 10 to 15 inches of rainfall and the potential for flash flooding and landslides, he said.
The team of Bay Area specialists, known as Task Force 3, includes first responders from the Menlo Park district. The task force is one of 28 such teams in the United States, including eight in California, Schapelhouman said.
Task Force 8 from the San Diego area is deployed to Kauai and Task Force 1 from the state of Washington is headed to Maui, he said.
Task Force 3 is traveling with more than 40,000 pounds of technical equipment, including boats and water-rescue equipment, he said.
Task force members are skilled in search-and-rescue, emergency communications, the use of heavy equipment and responding to the presence of hazardous materials. The teams include physicians and experts in structural engineering, logistics, and command and control of emergency situations.
“The Task Forces are the Swiss Army knives of Technical Rescue Operations and this configuration is specific to a smaller, more focused, water rescue capable unit that can operate in a dynamic field environment for ten to fourteen days,” according to Schapelhouman’s written statement.
Along with personnel from the Menlo Park district, the 36 members of Task Force 3 include first responders from Mountain View, Redwood City, San Mateo, San Francisco, San Jose, the city of Santa Clara, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, and civilian professionals, Schapelhouman said.
Since 1991, he said, Task Force 3 has assisted in responding to 19 hurricanes – three in 2017 alone – and other emergency situations, including the 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City, the World Trade Center attack in 2001, the 2010 gas line explosion in San Bruno, and the Oroville Dam failure in 2017.
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce