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Firefighters
return from Gulf Coast
By LETA NOLAN CHILDERS
Capital
Journal Staff
Tuesday, October
18, 2005
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Two
Pierre firefighters have returned from assisting in
relief efforts in
New Orleans
just long enough to prepare to head back south for the next three months.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency selected Curt Hasart and Sean Devine as
part of an elite response team formed of 1,000 pairs of firefighters recruited
nationally to assist in dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and
Hurricane Rita.
On Sept. 3, when Hasart and Devine learned of the call for qualified
firefighters, they faxed in an application. Three days later, they were notified
that they had been accepted. On Sept. 9, they were on their way to Atlanta, Ga.,
for orientation.
Getting to
New Orleans,
though, proved to be a circuitous route. After arriving in Atlanta, the team
received a short training session before being staged in Orlando, Fla. There,
they assisted hurricane victims in filing relief forms with FEMA.
After a couple of days in
Orlando,
Hasart and Devine were sent to
Maryland
where they fielded telephone calls at a FEMA station, again assisting
individuals in filing the correct forms for relief.
After Hurricane Rita blew through the Gulf Coast, the team was sent to Baton
Rouge and then to New Orleans.
“It was unlike anything I’d ever seen,” said Hasart. “It was just total
devastation everywhere you looked. Nothing like we’d ever see here.”
Armed with ready-to-eat meals and water, Hasart and Devine were sent out to meet
returning residents.
“They wanted to come in and get whatever of their things that they could and
then get out,” said Devine. “And, they weren’t coming back.
“And, there just wasn’t anything left there for them to get. It was just all
gone.”
In the area south of
New Orleans
where they were working, Hurricane Katrina had blown 200 mph winds and sent in a
12-foot storm surge.
“There were houses set on other houses. There were cows hanging halfway up
trees,” said Hasart, a paramedic. “Then you add in the smell of rotting
carcasses, and putrid water, and rotting everything. It was just total
devastation.”
The team wore their Pierre Fire Department shirts to work. “You did not want to
have anything with FEMA on it,” explained Devine. “People were just so angry
with FEMA it wasn’t safe to wear anything that had the FEMA logo on it.”
Home for a few days to attend to personal business, Hasart and Devine are
preparing to return to
New Orleans
until early January.
Story by: LETA NOLAN CHILDERS
Capital Journal, Pierre, SD
www.capitaljournal.com
For more information about the Pierre Fire
Department, e-mail the PFD
webmaster.
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