Gov. Bobby Jindal petitioned the federal government last week for $3 million to help revamp the state’s urban search and rescue teams. Urban search and rescue teams are deployed to help find lost people after a natural disaster causes damage to a city. They are usually some of the first people on the scene. Their job is to try and save as many lives as possible, and they go through rumble or into hazardous areas to try and find survivors. There are three local teams in the state already. They’re located in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport, but they don’t have the equipment or organization the state thinks they need. If granted, the state will buy better equipment and supplies for these teams. The goal is to have teams that can get to a crisis area within two hours. The state currently relies on one of FEMA’s 28 Urban Search and Rescue task forces, but the closest one is in College Station, Texas. These groups are usually comprised of 130 highly trained emergency responders including firefighters, engineers, medical professionals, canine handlers/trainers and assorted other members. The teams are spread all over the country, and they have been deployed to the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Utah, the 9/11 attacks, the Oklahoma City bombings and the Humberto Vidal Building Explosion. Jindal and the state are asking for things like bone saws, jackhammers, generators, snake-like cameras, sensitive listening devices, cold weather gear and other supplies. The funds would be used to set up a state-run team much like other state run programs. The task force would be used to respond to hurricanes, tornados, terrorists’ attacks or any other devastating occurrence. Jindal saw the need for the system after doing a September fundraiser where he met the Missouri Task Force One. They were able to help residents of southwestern Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. Jude Savoie, a fire chief in Calcasieu Parish and a member of the Louisiana Fire Chiefs Association, told The Advocate on Oct. 8 there has been a desire within the state to have an urban search and rescue team since the 9/11. Savoie added they’ve been running into problems since they received a $1 million grant. Some equipment was bought, but the organization system still needs to be put in place, according to Savoie. Savoie also expressed frustration in how far the nearest federal search and rescue team is. “(It’s) eight hours or better before they can get there [Lafayette] if a tornado goes through and collapses buildings,” he told The Advocate. With the current system, it would take four to eight hours to get to 39 of the state’s 64 parishes. Jindal’s administration wants to get that time down to two hours. The administration’s proposal keeps the three teams that already exist where they are and adds teams in Ouachita, Rapides, Calcasieu, Lafayette, Terrebonne and St. Tammany parishes. The state is pushing for a “nontraditional” grant from the FEMA and feels FEMA should cover the cost of the new supplies because it would be reducing the loss of life during disasters, but the grant isn’t guaranteed. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. With how hurricane prone the Gulf Coast has been in the last several years, one would think the federal government would set up a federal search and rescue task force along the Gulf Coast. Unfortunately that’s wishful thinking. The only Gulf Coast state to even have a task force is Florida, and the force is set up in Miami, nowhere near the Gulf Coast.  California, on the other hand, has eight federal urban search and rescue task forces set up. I understand the area is very prone to earthquakes and there are several big cities that might be targets for terrorists, but couldn’t the Gulf Coast get just one measly team?If the federal government isn’t going to set up a federal urban search and rescue task force, then they should give Gulf Coast states the funding they need to set up their own task forces. The state has needed this funding for a while, and it’s commendable that the Jindal administration has taken the initiative to go and try and get the funding the state needs. With four major hurricanes causing massive damage to Louisiana since 2005, it only makes sense that the fed will give the state the resources it requires to avert another tragedy. —-Contact Matthew Gravens at [email protected]