155 Crews From 38 States Now On Ground
Release Date: February 24, 2003
Release Number: 3171-35
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Lufkin, TX -- With 155 crews from 38 states searching to find shuttle debris in East Texas, the Incident Command System's effort is now one of the largest interagency mobilization efforts in one place, in one week, in the history of the Forest Service, recovery officials said today.
"Those crews represent about 3,100 people in the field as of Monday," said Federal Coordinating Officer Scott Wells of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), "and there are additional support folks in the camps. We are marshalling the appropriate forces for our mission of retrieving as much shuttle material as we can before vegetation growth impairs our efforts."
Following are reports on Monday's activities:
- The primary search area remains a 10-mile-by-240-mile corridor along the shuttle flight path from Ellis County to Toledo Bend Reservoir. Ground search concentrates on a one-mile area on either side of the projected flight path in this corridor. Air search is over a five-mile area on either side of the flight path.
- The Southern Area Incident Command Blue Team, operating from the Nacogdoches base camp, has 36, 20-person crews in the field. Approximately 1,100 workers are at the Nacogdoches camp.
- The Martin team based in Hemphill and the California Interagency Management Team 1 based in Palestine each have 35, 20-person crews. Each team has more than 1,000 workers, including the crews.
- At Corsicana, 47, 20-person crews are active in the debris search. The complement of personnel at this camp has reached 1,063.
- In Longview, at the East Texas Regional Airport, the mobilization team has processed more than 2,640 workers representing 132 crews since establishing operations Feb. 17. Crew members fly into Longview and are transported to base camps.
- Dive team operations at Toledo Bend Reservoir were hampered by high wind conditions over the weekend with Louisiana shore waves reported at three to five feet. Winds hampered boat anchoring on the Texas shore. Eight dive teams from the U.S. Navy, City of Houston, City of Galveston, Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are engaged in the operation.
Last Modified: Monday, 14-Apr-2003 10:13:25