Agencies practice evacuating volunteers, “pets”
By Amy Wold
The Advocate
Copyright 2006 Capital City Press
All Rights Reserved
NEW ORLEANS — Helicopters “thwaping” overhead and the humming of motorboats on water were familiar sounds in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina last year.
On Wednesday, those sounds reemerged over the southern portion of Lake Pontchartrain. It was part of a training exercise to test rescue operations involving multiple agencies, said Bo Boehringer, a spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the lead agency.
More than 200 rescue workers representing 13 agencies converged at the lake’s shore near the 17th Street Canal to “rescue” volunteers and their pets from patches of dry land simulating parts of the city that did not flood. Officials said the drill, dubbed Operation Lily Pad, used lessons learned from Katrina, which hit Aug. 29, 2005.
“That’s the goal is to work the bugs out of the system,” he said.
The most-obvious setbacks occurred because of the weather. A steady wind over the lake produced waves that made operating smaller aluminum boats risky, including those used by the city’s Police and Fire departments.
The Fire Department’s 18-foot rigid hull inflatable boat was no match for the waves, Capt. Ruel Douvillier said.
Although much of the water in the flooded city was calm, Douvillier said, there was rough water near the levee breaches. As a result, he said, firefighters recently completed swift-water rescue training on Class 3 rapids in Mississippi.
However, larger DWF and the U.S. Coast Guard boats continued their rescues as the helicopter rescues began about 10 a.m.
In general, Boehringer said, radio communication plans have improved, although there is work to do. This was the first large-scale rescue test and training of its kind since last year’s hurricanes and the first to include the rescue of pets.
Shelly Patton, special event coordinator with the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said the training included 15 dogs with their “owners,” organization volunteers.
“Katrina showed everyone that if you don’t save the animals, you don’t save as many lives,” Patton said.
Many people decided not to evacuate before the storm because they wanted to keep their pets. In addition, many were forced to leave their pets when rescued, she said.
“Under the circumstances, people did the best they could,” she said.
Another area needing more attention is how rescue victims are transferred from staging points to their destinations, Boehringer said.
Meanwhile, about 20 members of the East Baton Rouge Parish Urban Search and Rescue Team were present as the core of the Louisiana Urban Search and Rescue Task Force. Its job is to support local rescue efforts across the state.
The parish group formed in 2003 and is made up of representatives from various fire and emergency medical services agencies, explained Eldon Ledoux, a spokesman with St. George Fire Protection District on loan as task force spokesman.
“Post-Katrina, these folks were some of the first to respond,” Ledoux said. In the first four days after the storm, he said, the group helped rescue 1,500 people from flooded areas.
Although their role in Wednesday’s training was limited, task force members said the exercise seemed to work out well.