Although nearly 2,000 miles away, Utahns are preparing to help with rescue efforts in New York and Washington, D.C., in the aftermath of what appears to be a coordinated terrorist attack on the United States.
Joining rescue teams on the front lines will be a 62-member urban rescue team, called Utah Task Force One, along with four highly trained disaster rescue dogs from the Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs.
The team spent the night at Hill Air Force Base. They were expected to leave on a military transport Wednesday morning and arrive in New York by late afternoon, Salt Lake County Fire Capt. Jay Ziolkowski said.
The team was one of 27 nationwide on alert, 12 of which have been deployed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency decides how many and which teams to send to a disaster area, and it designated $10,000 for the team's transport to the East Coast. However, the team must bring its own equipment to New York.
"I've never had to go in and find them (missing rescuers.) I don't know how we're going to do it," said Dave Perks , a manager and dog handler for Rocky Mountain Rescue Dogs. "This is going to be horrendous."
Although Utah Task Force One was traveling on military planes, other rescue workers were hampered in efforts to get to the East Coast because of the Federal Aviation Agency's no-fly rule. Military planes and transports, such as the one on which the team traveled, were exempt. Other rescue workers that would have traveled on commercial flights were grounded under the agency's orders. This was the first such national disaster where air travel was not possible. The FAA banned commercial airline travel until at least noon Wednesday.
The Greater Salt Lake Chapter of the American Red Cross heard about the attacks and immediately started compiling blood supplies and workers. Nationally, the organization dispatched mental-health workers and medical personnel to the two cities and Boston, the originating site of two hijacked planes.
The Salt Lake chapter took phone calls from people who were looking for family members in those areas and opened cases for those who were not able to locate their family members immediately after the apparent attacks. By Wednesday morning they had located 37 people.
"We were watching the news and putting together a response as it was unfolding," said Susan Sheehan, the chief executive officer of the Salt Lake chapter.
She said her agency and others were also making sure to keep some resources at home. If a disaster happened on the West Coast and all the resources were back East, it would be very difficult to respond.
The Red Cross is encouraging people to donate blood because the New York area was experiencing a critical shortage of blood even before the attacks, according to Sheehan. Call 1-800-448-3543 or 892-4000 to schedule a donation appointment. In the Salt Lake area, people can donate at the American Red Cross Blood Services, 6616 S. 900 East, from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Contributing: Jerry Spangler
E-mail: kswinyard@desnews.com