NFPA Journal - November/December 2017 - 39

TOP: JOE JARDIN; BOTTOM: NEWSCOM

slow going in the first days. But after
that, the primary roads, the main
highways, kind of got freed up. We
were able to work with [a number of
entities from FEMA and Puerto Rico]
to develop operational plans to provide
reconnaissance and search and rescue
efforts on Puerto Rico and also the
island of St. Croix.
Our job was to go out and determine where people were trapped in
structures or as a result of landslides
or anything else. We lacked tactical air
support. We did finally get a helicopter
that was tasked to us for much of the
deployment, and that was a significant
contribution to our search needs.
In the first 72 to 96 hours, I think the
FEMA administrator would tell you that
the federal urban search and rescue
(US&R) folks on the ground were the
exclusive and best source of situational
awareness FEMA had. We were able to

cover a fair percentage of the island's
geography, but with limits. We were
able to quickly travel across those primary roads, but secondary roads were
still a challenge, given landslides, flooding, and bridges being out. It took us a
while, but we were able to create access
to the emergency operations center
in each of Puerto Rico's 12 emergency
regions. Eventually, we were able to hit
every city, too-78 or 79 cities.
There were two instances, one with
a New York task force and one with
a California team, that I think were
emblematic of what FEMA's US&R
teams accomplished in Puerto Rico.
The New York team, in one of its earliest missions, went out to a community
called Utuado, in the central mountainous region of the island. It became
a challenge for several days. It was an
area that had become isolated in part,
from what I understand, by a bridge
collapse and a mudslide. It
was a large community. There
was no ability to readily get
commodities to the residents,
and residents who needed
medical assistance couldn't
get out. The team set up a

rope line across this fairly wide river
that was flowing pretty rapidly, and
used a boat to ferry supplies to people
who were isolated and also removed
folks who needed care. That was a
pretty impressive feat.
A day or so later, a California team
on the south side of the island came
upon a hospital that had run out of
diesel for its generator, and the generator had shut down. There were, I
believe, four patients being ventilated
manually. The hospital's staffers were
using bag-valve masks to keep these
people alive, to breathe for them. The
team took over the ventilations and
called for medical evacuation assistance. That assistance didn't come
very quickly. I think it took five or six
hours to get the medevac helicopter
to transport those patients. That said,
while these guys were manually ventilating the patients, another part of
the team was able to get the generator
working, so they were able to get the
patients back on the mechanical ventilators. Those guys saved some lives
for sure.
ANGELO VERZONI is NFPA Journal staff writer.

DIRECT HIT
Above, Jardin meets
with Carmen Yulin
Cruz, the mayor of
San Juan, Puerto
Rico. At right,
the devastation
wrought by Maria
dealt a heavy blow
to the island's
infrastructure,
which complicated
response and
recovery efforts.

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

| 39
http://nfpa.org/journal
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2017
