FEMA activates elite NYC Urban Search and Rescue Team to help Louisiana recovery efforts

Hurricane Ida has been downgraded after making landfall Sunday afternoon as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane.

News 12 Staff

Aug 30, 2021, 2:50 AM

Updated 1,106 days ago

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Hurricane Ida has been downgraded after making landfall Sunday afternoon as an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane. 
As of Sunday night, all of Orleans Parish, including New Orleans, is without power. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards called Ida "one of the strongest storms to make landfall here in modern times."
President Joe Biden has called on federal forces throughout FEMA to get help to those who will need it quickly.
Part of the FEMA response is the elite New York City Urban Search and Rescue Team. They geared up and left Brooklyn for Baton Rouge today. 
"We will be deploying three tractor trailers, two box trucks, three pickups, four swift water rescue boats and eight vans as well as other first responders and equipment," says Chief Joe Downey.
Downey helps to lead the NY Task Force 1 unit made up of FDNY, NYPD and EMS with some of those members coming from Long Island.
They are prepared for just about anything.
"We do chain saw operations, basically we can do anything," says Downey. "We are self sufficient when we go out there."
The Task Force is expected to arrive in Louisiana in about 24 to 48 hours and will get right to work.