The state of Louisiana has developed and built a flexible, strong technical rescue response system. We have three core urban search and rescue (USAR) teams: Louisiana Task Force One based in New Orleans, Task Force Two out of Baton Rouge, and Task Force Three in Shreveport. The state can also field two Regional Response Teams out of Pineville and Monroe. Task Force One is a USAR at both the state and regional levels. Our enabling agency at the state level is the Louisiana State Fire Marshal’s Office and our sponsoring agency is the New Orleans Fire Department. At the regional level our enabling agency is the four-parish Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) Region I and our sponsoring agency is the New Orleans Fire Department (NOFD). We have 75 members from 19 different agencies. We can respond as a NIMS Type 2, 3, or 4 USAR Task Force or we can task organize teams according to the mission.
At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 23, 2016 an EF-3 tornado slammed into the Sugar Hill RV Park in St. James Parish of our state. The park is primarily a temporary home for out-of-state contractors working in chemical plants along the Mississippi River corridor. The 140-mph winds destroyed over 100 of the approximately 160 trailers in the park, killed two people and left 37 injured. The tornado, one of 12 that struck the state that afternoon, left a path of destruction 21 miles long and 350 yards wide.
Most businesses and schools in the areas of Southeast Louisiana expected to be impacted by the heavy weather closed down between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. that day, and this included the employer of Ryan Loque, chief of the St. James Volunteer Fire Department. Chief Loque kept an eye on the weather and used his scanner to monitor an ever increasing amount of activity in his and neighboring response areas.
Tornado touches down
At 3:40, the St. James VFD was toned out to a tornado touchdown at Watertower Street and Chief Loque told his personnel, via radio, to report to their main station and they would convoy into the site from there. The St. James VFD responded with an engine company, a rescue company, and a response unit and brush truck for manpower. Response speeds were often slowed to 20 mph due to torrential rains. At approximately 4 p.m., Logue arrived at a check point set up by the St. James Sheriff’s Office and was informed that, while there was some damage to Watertower and other streets, the majority of damage and victims could be found at the Sugar Hill mobile home park.
When the rescuers arrived on scene they were inundated with walking wounded, reports of people trapped, and a multitude of disoriented survivors. Chief Loque initiated his incident command system, designated a staging area, and used his deputy and assistant chiefs to form search and rescue teams. Chief Loque realized he had a mass casualty incident on his hands and requested that his dispatchers contact his primary medical provider, Acadian Ambulance, and any available mutual aid units. Those dispatchers, even though they were overwhelmed by incoming emergency calls, managed to accomplish this in a timely manner. Responding units included the Union Convent, South Vacherie, North Vacherie, Fire District #1, Prairieville Fire District #3, and the City of Gonzales Fire Department and EMS, all with personnel and equipment, necessitating the establishment of a second staging area. The Lafourche and St. James Parish Sheriff’s Offices also sent personnel and canines to assist in the searches. Chief Loque recognized that the incident would extend into the hours of darkness and called for lighting units.
Primary and secondary searches were begun, triage was initiated, and an organized evacuation system for both injured and uninjured victims was established. At approximately 5:45, the first State Fire Marshal’s Office deputies arrived on scene and asked the incident commander (IC) if he thought canine search teams might be helpful. Chief Loque realized the benefits the teams would bring, made the formal request, and at 5:54 I received the phone call from the State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Canine teams arrive
I telephonically alerted my personnel that we had been activated and that we needed canines and flankers. I picked an easily identifiable landmark, the north end of a well-known bridge, as our rally point. Our 55-mile response was delayed by weather and closed highways and we arrived at the incident site at approximately 9:00 with 20 personnel (including two medical doctors and a paramedic) and 11 canine search teams. We reported to the IC, who informed us that his secondary searches were just ending and we decided to wait until they were done to conduct our searches. I requested that one local responder be attached to each search team. We have found that this brings two benefits; an on-going source of local information to each team and a constant weather gauge of how well we are doing. We are not finished searching until the local responder with the team is satisfied that all is clear. We also use one of our people as a flanker to provide each canine search team with a safety officer, a second set of eyes to detect canine alerts or interest, and forcible entry where necessary.
We decided to split the searches into live and human remains due to the relatively small area to be searched. Eleven teams out at once would have been tripping over each other. The live search teams went out first. The mobile home park was oriented north to south, and there was one hard-surfaced road bisecting it neatly in the middle running east to west. We decided to use that as a starting point and send three teams into the heavily devastated northern area, and two into the less-damaged southern area. Before leaving, the teams were given an operations briefing, which included insuring that all radios were on the appropriate channel and a briefing from one of our medical managers on the importance of getting an ALS assessment of any trapped victims prior to extrication due to the possibility of crush injury syndrome. We also gave each team a safety briefing. Once the live searches were completed, we conducted our human remains searches.
During our live searches, one of our teams heard what they felt might have been human moaning and the dog showed interest in a point on the northwest corner of the site. We conducted back-up searches with other canines and eventually a FLIR and found a trapped cat that we felt was the source of the alerts. Our canines also alerted on a destroyed trailer home to the west of the park and we used a local excavator to strip the trailer to ground level, pausing several times during that operation to send in canines. We found blood spots but, fortunately no victims.
Second day of searches
We concluded our operations at 3 a.m. and, during the debriefing with our IC and his staff, we all felt that, while we were confident there were no live victims in the impact area, we would like to come back and make a daylight search just to confirm things. I was occupied with other matters on the 24th so Alan Favalora acted as our Task Force Leader on that day. He brought six canine search teams with him. The St. James VFD arrived on scene around 8 a.m. and finished accounting for victims by contacting family members, shelters, etc., a process they had begun the night before.
Our teams arrived at 10:30 and searches began at 11:00 and concluded at 4:30 p.m. with no results. Everyone went home at the end of the day with confidence that all victims had been located and accounted for, which is the way any professional search should end.
In sum
The impact of this tornado and the amount and variety of responding units should have overwhelmed the St. James VFD, but this didn’t happen. The primary reason was Chief Loque’s understanding and willingness to implement the ICS early in the operation. This allowed many different agencies with many different disciplines to seamlessly integrate into the operation, which is one of the main tenets of the ICS. Another is our long-standing Memorandum of Agreement with Louisiana Search and Rescue (LASAR), a local, outstanding canine search team. We work and train with them, and we know and understand them. They have rescued us on several occasions. Finally, the mission was a success due to the professionalism and dedication to duty of all of those who responded.
RUEL DOUVILLIER spent 20 years in the U.S. Army, serving as a medic, infantryman and paratrooper. He served five years as a paramedic with New Orleans, LA, Emergency Medical Services and 14 years with the New Orleans Fire Department, most of that time with heavy technical rescue squads. Douvillier has also served with private ambulance services and volunteer and combination fire departments and has extensive experience as an instructor. He is presently the Task Force Leader of the Louisiana Task Force One, the state and regional USAR team, and the operations manager for SAR Specialists, an emergency response training company.
