DISASTER PREPAREDNESS - BEFORE THE FACT - LESSONS ON HAITI - Part 1

For the last two nights I've gotten little sleep and I've watched with anxiety the pictures coming in from Haiti. They are scary. The enormity of the disaster is like nothing I've ever seen before. All over our country Search and Rescue Teams are mobilizing to respond and provide aid. Many of these Teams are professionals who do this for a living, but many are people such as myself who do this out of the desire to help and serve. We do this so that others may live and we do it at no charge.

I am a volunteer First Responder with www.tcsar.org . Travis County Search and Rescue TCSAR is a first responder search and rescue SAR organization based in the Austin Texas. We are a group highly-trained unpaid volunteers with a strong sense of civic duty and responsibility. TCSAR serves the Central Texas community but will respond to any requests from law enforcement or government agencies in the state of Texas. TCSAR has also assisted in natural disasters outside of Texas and sent assistance to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. We provide K-9 services for both Live / Air Scent and Human Remains detecting. We provide ground search services, search management and medical professionals if needed. We also have a Special Operations Team for both urban rescue and wilderness searches. As of this morning 3 of our members are deploying to Haiti to assist in search and rescue operations.

Recently there was an article about our group in the Austin American Statesman Our group practices and conducts training weekly. On Tuesday we conduct Canine practice at Camp Mabry and on Thursday we are at the park in Pflugerville. We train all year in other areas of disaster preparedness. We attend first aid classes, rope classes, FEMA classes and canine classes all at our own expense.

We are a 501c3 charitable non-profit organization and survive on membership fees and one annual fundraiser. If you are interested in making a donation to our group please follow the link below.