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20 August 2007
Virginia Firefighters Respond to Peruvian Earthquake Crisis
Task Force 1 part of U.S. contribution to international disaster response
Washington -- Firefighters the world over respond at a moment’s notice to emergencies in their communities, but some respond to emergencies half a continent away. The Fairfax County, Virginia, Fire and Rescue Department, working with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), is responding to an earthquake crisis in Peru.
An assessment team has been sent to Lima, following a devastating magnitude 8 earthquake that struck August 15. Magnitude 8 earthquakes are among the most severe on the scale.
The three-man team is also part of Virginia Task Force 1, one of 28 urban search and rescue teams from cities across the United States, which can be deployed nationwide wherever disaster strikes.
And with California Task Force 2, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Task Force 1 works with USAID to respond when foreign governments request support.
“We’re very happy and honored to participate,” Daniel Schmidt, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, told USINFO August 20.
The members arrived in Lima August 18 with tents, generators, computers, food and water to support a U.N. Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team. The U.N. team is working with the Peruvian government to identify priority needs and coordinate the flow of international relief supplies to the response effort.
“Virginia Task Force 1 has had a long relationship with USAID,” Schmidt said, noting previous aid missions to Malaysia, Kenya and Armenia. In recent years, the California team traveled to Sri Lanka following the 2004 South Asian tsunami and to Iran following the 2003 earthquake.
In addition to deploying Task Force 1, USAID has contributed $300,000 for the Peruvian government to purchase and ship emergency supplies into the affected regions, which are struggling to distribute safe drinking water and food and provide shelter and other necessities to displaced residents. The USAID staff also is working closely with Peruvian civil defense authorities to identify further emergency response needs.
The United States is also a major donor to the U.N. World Food Programme, which is sending $500,000 worth of emergency food aid to affected communities.
More than 16,000 homes were destroyed by the quake, centered near the coastal town of Chicha Alta. The earthquake claimed at least 510 lives and injured more than 1,000 people. According to the joint U.N. and European Commission Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System, approximately 515,000 people live within a 100-kilometer radius of the earthquake’s epicenter, where geologists have recorded more than 300 aftershocks, several exceeding magnitude 6.0.
With Hurricane Dean expected to make landfall in Mexico August 21, Schmidt said that Maryland Task Force 1, a member of the national search and rescue network sponsored by the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, is currently on standby and may become the third U.S. team ever to deploy abroad should the Mexican government request assistance from the U.S. government.
U.S. MILITARY DEPLOYS MEDICAL TEAMS TO PERU
The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has committed another $410,000 to the international relief effort, deploying a 30-member field surgical team from its Joint Task Force Bravo, based in Honduras, to provide specialized medical services to disaster victims in Peru.
“Any time there is disaster of this magnitude, there is dramatic increase in the medical needs of those communities affected. As a partner nation and close friend of Peru, we stand ready to assist with those resources and capabilities at our disposal,” said Admiral James G. Stavridis, commander of SOUTHCOM.
Military medical personnel arrived in Peru on August 19, establishing operations in a small stadium located in the center of Pisco, where they treated more than 200 patients within three hours of opening. The team includes members from the U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort, whose members recently completed a mission delivering medical care in the region. (See Innovative Programs Changing Lives in Caribbean, Central America.)
“As the only forward-deployed task force in Central America, we are uniquely positioned to respond to contingencies in Central and South America,” said deputy commander Lieutenant Colonel Howard Jones. “This earthquake was a tragedy, but Joint Task Force Bravo is ready and willing to help with recovery efforts however we are needed.”
A second U.S. Air Force medical team also was deployed from Texas to the town of Ica, where hundreds of adobe homes crumbled in the quake.
“We are trying to see as many people as possible each day,” said Major Richard Malish, a team surgeon. “Right now, we haven’t seen any traumas, so our goal is to get the people medicine for their aches and pains to make them more comfortable day to day.”
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
