Ojai, California (my home town) is the base for National Disaster Search Dog Foundation. Many dog / handler teams have been deployed to Haiti. They have been saving lives. click here to read the NDSDF Haiti blog and to find out how you can donate.
This is the NDSDF latest post:
Sunday was a very successful search day for Los Angeles County Task Force (CA-TF2), with a total of five rescues.
On Sunday the BLUE TEAM (Bill Monahan & Hunter, Jasmine Segura & Cadillac and Jason Vasquez & Maverick) rescued a woman from the rubble of her hotel. The appreciation shown by locals for the Search Teams and their Task Force was overwhelming. As soon as the woman was pulled from the wreckage, Haitians gathered in the street and began chanting, “U.S.A., U.S.A., U.S.A….”
After this the teams helped dig out three more women from under three stories of another collapsed building. Two of the women, 19 and 20-year old sisters, were located when they called out to rescuers, but the third woman, a 31-year old, was deeper in the rubble. With the electronic listening devices signaling that there may be someone below, Search Dogs Cadillac, Maverick and Hunter were sent in and all showed interest in the same area, confirming the findings of the listening devices.
Jasmine Segura & Cadillac
During the rescue, Task Force members crawled into tight spaces to reach the area where the Search Dogs had shown interest and found the third woman still lying in bed. She was pinned to her mattress by the ceiling of her bedroom, just inches from crushing her. When handler Jasmine Segura was able to get close enough, she could see the woman waving to her and heard her say, “Thank you,” in English. Rescuers cut out the mattress that the woman was lying on and were able to safely slide her out.
During Sunday’s shift, L.A. County RED TEAM (Ron Horetski & Pearl, Ron Weckbacher & Dawson and Gary Durian & Baxter) assisted the Task Force rescue squad in extricating a 50-year old woman from a collapsed building. She was successfully brought to safety, dehydrated, but with only slight injuries.
The Blue Team arrived back at the Base of Operations at 9:30 a.m. just as the Red Team got back to work. The teams have not been told when they will sent home, and are prepared to stay in Haiti as long as it takes.
SDF Executive Director Debra Tosch comments: “The rescues in Haiti underscore the critical importance of Canine Search Teams in finding survivors in the aftermath of major disasters. This is our mission, and we’re honored to be part of the Haiti rescue effort in conjunction with the U.S. Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance and the L.A. Country Task Force.”
All of SDF’s Search have been standing by, ready to deploy to Haiti when called upon by their Task Force. Our Orange County and Sacramento teams were activated for deployment shortly after the earthquake struck, and were at March and Travis Air Force Bases since then waiting to depart. As of Monday morning, they were de-mobilizing and will be going home today.
Please share this with friends and family who may want to follow the Search Teams on facebook or twitter: Facebook http://www.facebook.com/NationalDisasterSearchDogFoundation and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/searchrescuedog.