National Disaster Search Dog Foundation Canines Called To Service In The Nation's Two Worst Disasters
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Response to Katrina Marks Second Time Organization Plays Integral Role
OJAI, Calif., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- As the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina enters its second week, search and rescue canines trained by the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation (NDSDF) continue to be a vital resource in the search and rescue operations and insure that no victim is left behind.
Canines assigned to the FEMA California Task Forces are being moved from Texas to locations along the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, LA, Biloxi, MS and Gulfport, MS. Along with their handlers, they will search for victims of the most destructive natural disaster in American history. Their most important task is to insure that no one alive remains within the wreckage as search and recovery crews begin the work of recovering the dead as well as restoring order.
NDSDF provided more canine search teams than any other organization in nation to the terrorist attacks on September 11th - this country's worst man- made disaster and provided the same reassurance - that no one was left behind. Coincidentally, this current search and rescue effort takes place during a time when most reflect upon that tragedy. Many of the search and rescue teams deployed to the Gulf Coast were on scene at 9/11.
As one NDSDF handler commented, "These Task Forces will be charged with searching every house for live people stranded, but weak or possibly unconscious in their attics. Every house must be searched.
The importance of our Live Scent Dogs cannot be overstated - as people can still be surviving at this stage."
The teams currently being positioned are replacing those teams that have been in the area since the start of Katrina and experienced days of grueling work. California Task Forces 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8 are all being located to New Orleans, which in the last day has experienced a receding of flood water, permitting the arduous task of door to door searching to begin.
ABOUT NATIONAL DISASTER SEARCH DOG FOUNDATION
National Disaster Search Dog Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission to produce the most highly trained canine disaster search teams in the nation. The Foundation is responsible for training over 25% of all of the Advanced FEMA canine search teams in the United States and provided 33% of the teams deployed on September 11, 2001 to the World Trade Center. Website: http://www.SearchDogFoundation.org or call 1-888-4K9-HERO.
