Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California is sending Oakland-based urban search and rescue personnel to Louisiana, where Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday.
A statement from Newsom’s office said “California maintains robust search and rescue resources within the state and the deployment does not draw from resources in use to combat wildfires.”
“As we manage the ongoing emergency response to wildfires and support impacted communities, California is carefully assessing and balancing resources to answer the call to aid our fellow Americans in a time of great need, as we have so often received support ourselves in recent years,” Newsom said.
Part of the National US&R Response System, administered in California by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CAL OES), the Oakland-based California/FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force-4 will join with US&R incident support specialists to assist with search and rescue operations following Hurricane Ida, which struck the Gulf Coast as a strong Category 4 hurricane.
The California/FEMA US&R Task Force that deployed to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, on Sunday is based in the Oakland Fire Department, with participation from several surrounding fire agencies. The Type 3 task force includes 35 members and 10 ground support personnel trained and equipped to provide water rescues and technical and canine search, rescue, medical, and other specialized capabilities at the scene.
Other incident support teams from California being deployed to Louisiana include those from the Los Angeles, Menlo Park, and Sacramento fire departments.