Local rescuers undertake Opal
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Reporter
A stiff 30 mph wind blew Wednes
day night as Lincoln rescue workers
packed emergency gear onto trucks,
preparing to tackle much stronger
winds stirred by Hurricane Opal.
In the comer of the Air Park fire
station, a 13-inch television set
showed satellite images of the
hurricane’s driving rains and 144 mph
winds as it moved across the Florida
panhandle.
The 62-member search-and-res
cue team will travel by bus to Camp
Shelby in Hattiesburg, Miss. The
Nebraska group will be dispatched to
the storm’s disaster area after they
arrive Thursday afternoon.
“I have mixed emotions right
now,” said Doug Wyatt, the director
of Eastern Ambulance. “We get a bus
ride to think-about all the things we
will encounter.”
The Federal Emergency Manage
ment Agency called on the Lincoln
rescuers about noon Wednesday to
.assist in the wake of Opal’s destruc
tion.
The Nebraska Urban Search and
Rescue Team, which was formed by
. FEMA about three years ago, is made
up of medics from Eastern, rescuers
from the Lincoln Fire Department
and structural engineers from the city
of Lincoln. The group, which is one
of 25 across the country, has never
been deployed..
Generators, chain saws, cement
crushers, listening devices and sheets
of plywood were loaded onto two
semi-trucks parked outside the fire
station west of the Lincoln Munici
pal Airport.
After the heavy equipment was
loaded, workers dressed in fluores
cent yellow T-shirts and camouflage
pants passed 3-gallon jugs of bottled
water along an assembly line into the
trucks, The water supply — enough
for 14 days — was packed into the
trucks with boxes of shredded wheat,
hot cocoa mix, canned soup and
styrdfoam plates.
As the rescuers frantical ly worked,
they said they were nervous, excited
and scared.
“All of those emotions are appro
priate,” said Lincoln Deputy Fire
Chief Dean Staberg. “There’s some
apprehension, but we are going to
keep our guard up and make sure our
rescuers don’t become part of the
catastrophe.”
The team spent $250,000 in about
six hours Wednesday purchasing sup
plies for the rescue mission, said Lin
coln Fire Chief Mike Merwick.
FEMA reimburses the city for its
expenses and training.
Shortly after 9 p.m.,.two chartered
buses packed with burly firefighters
and paramedics pulled out of the fire
station. A few family members stayed
behind and watched and read the
message painted on the back win
dows of the buses: “Discover Ne
braska, the Good Life.”
Travis Heying/DN
Members of a rescue group made of Lincoln emergency crews
load supplies onto a truck headed for disaster areas in Mississippi.
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