UPDATE HURRICANE FLORENCE AND OLIVIA

Menlo Park Fire District  

 

September 13, 2018

 

California Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3 members deployed to Hurricane Florence while others will be returning From Kona, Hawaii after Hurricane Olivia Friday morning

 

NEWS RELEASE

The 36 Members California Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Task Force 3 (CA-TF3) have officially been released from by the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (CAL-OES) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on Thursday,  to return home from the Hawaiian Islands after Hurricane Olivia while others members of the Bay Area Rescue Team are standing by or being deployed for Hurricane Florence.

Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said “Last year, we responded to three Hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. So far this year we have responded to Hawaii twice in the last three weeks and now have personnel either ready for response, or enroute to the Carolina’s for Hurricane Florence all the while most of our participating Fire agencies, including ours, simultaneously have other personnel out on California campaign fires and still daily make sure that we all maintain our own local staffing on every first response unit and at every Fire Station to protect our local communities. That doesn’t just happen, it means that we ask every Firefighter, deployed or not, to step up, step in and cover multiple shifts regardless of when they were normally working. That’s just what you do in our Fire Service when people need your help, here or abroad and that’s why and how we get it done!”

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Rex Ianson (in the white helmet) is headed out for Hurricane Florence. Ianson is a founding member of Task Force 3 (Est 1990), he is a Vietnam Veteran and was both a Firefighter/Engineer and elected Board of Director for the Menlo Park Fire Protection District for a combined service of 48 years until he stepped down from the Fire Board late last year. He has remained active with the Team (CA-TF3), where he is considered an expert in large area search. He is shown here at Ground Zero in New York after 9/11. Credit California Task Force 3

Pictured Below – Members of California Task Force 3, based out of East Palo Alto, take a group photograph Thursday before leaving Kona, Hawaii after Hurricane Olivia for the Bay Area. Credit FEMA California Task Force 3

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