Nevada task force aids in hurricane recovery work
Late at night on Sept. 7, a convoy of 15 pickup trucks, vans and tractor-trailers departed a nondescript cream-colored building on Pecos Road and headed south.
They bore east on Interstate 40 and drove nearly two days straight in order to beat Hurricane Irma to Georgia. There, the 81 deployed members of Nevada Task Force-1 would turn a Robins Air Force Base hangar into a base of operations and living quarters for the next week.
“We have special equipment that we can take care of any urban search and rescue scenario you can think of,” said Jeff Lytle, a retired North Las Vegas fire chief who now is a leader on the task force. “We come very self-sufficient, so when we get on site we can take care of ourselves.”
While they are trained and equipped to respond to the worst devastated areas of natural disaster, members of the urban rescue team spent the week of hurricane recovery efforts by clearing roadways, cutting trees and helping repair damaged homes.
Combined with their responses to Hurricane Harvey in Houston and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, members of Nevada Task Force-1 have worked more than 24,000 man-hours assisting hurricane victims this year.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is repaying Clark County governments with about $2.5 million to cover the costs of deployment. The funds will be doled out to the county and cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson.
“They’re sending us 100 percent of our expenses: salaries benefits, equipment costs, fuel, administrative costs,” said county Deputy Fire Chief John Steinbeck.
The largest number of task force members responded to Hurricane Irma. The county will receive $1.5 million for that deployment. Twenty members responded to Hurricane Harvey. FEMA is offering a little more than $1 million for that. One member responded to Hurricane Maria. The county will receive $60,000 for Karl Lee’s service as an information officer.
All the task force members have returned home except for Lee, who is still in Puerto Rico, Steinbeck said.
Contact Michael Scott Davidson at sdavidson@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3861. Follow @davidsonlvrj on Twitter.
