California Governor Gavin Newsom approved Saturday the deployment of San Diego County’s Urban Search and Rescue crew to Louisiana to help in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Barry.
San Diego’s US&R organized by the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department will be joined by other three California-based state/national task forces that will be pre-positioned in Baton Rouge with Texas US&R Task Force 1 and other federal assets in support of Louisiana.
During the deployment, these specialists will use their skills and disaster response experience to assist with emergency operations in Louisiana, a press release confirmed.
Barry pummeled Louisiana becoming a Category 1 hurricane, the system weakened to a tropical storm as it made landfall near Intracoastal City, Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said.
More than 70,000 customers were without power Saturday morning, including nearly 67,000 in Louisiana and more than 3,000 in Mississippi, according to poweroutage.us.
The Urban Search and Rescue system was developed in 1990 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in response to several disasters which occurred in the 1980s. The Loma Prieta earthquake, in particular, brought a significant focus on the federal, state and local governments' abilities to respond to such disasters, according to their website.
