NEWS INFORMATION FROM

THE OFFICE OF MAYOR STEPHEN R. REED
City of Harrisburg
King City Government Center
Harrisburg, PA 17101-1678
Telephone: 717.255.3040

FOR IMMEDIATE USE
22 September 2005

GULF AREA HURRICANE-RELATED OPERATIONS CONTINUE IN HIGH- GEAR BY LOCAL PERSONNEL

Mayor Stephen R. Reed today reported on multiple operations being conducted by City of Harrisburg emergency personnel in the stricken states devastated by Hurricane Katrina. He said current operations are at the highest level, involving the most varied duties and largest number of personnel since the hurricane first struck and the levees broke in New Orleans, causing a second catastrophe in the city:

o 82 persons of the Pennsylvania Task Force One, the statewide federally- certified search, rescue and recovery team that is administered by the city, will begin their second tour of duty, this time in New Orleans, starting Tuesday; they will be doing search, rescue and recovery work targeted to the 25% of the city which remains under 5 ½ feet or more of water; they may perform similar duty in neighboring St. Bernard Parish, as needed; the same task force was on the ground in Mississippi two days after the first hurricane struck; 16 city firefighters are amongst the currently deployed team;

o The city police task force continues their patrol, security and relief operations in a 9-county area of Mississippi, working with the Mississippi Highway Patrol and local sheriffs; the 21-member team’s equipment includes Harrisburg sophisticated Command and Communications van, with portable repeater station built for this deployment, which is handling areawide communications for the team and that area’s local and state police agencies, whose radio frequencies have been programmed into the van’s communications system;

o 4 city firefighters, working as two 2-person teams, are serving as FEMA public assistance officers, going house to house in multiple communities distributing FEMA disaster assistance information and handling public inquiries; one team is in Houston at the major relief shelters there; the other team is in Mississippi;

o The city’s senior deputy fire chief remains assigned to the FEMA multi- state operations center in Baton Rouge, handling coordination of relief supplies, emergency crew deployments and matching resources to local needs;

o Due to the threat of yet another hurricane in the Gulf region, Hurricane Rita, major resupply and gear-up work is occurring in Harrisburg for possible additional FEMA ordered deployments; 7 city firefighters, including a battalion chief, are working full-time on the resupply effort to assure readiness if additional devastation occurs from presently pending storms.

Reed noted that FEMA covers the costs of the deployments, including the costs of firefighters placed on extra duty or overtime to fill spots of firefighters in the Gulf; this assures all city fire stations in Harrisburg have the usual complement of personnel for local service calls. In the city Police Bureau, officers in specialty units have been moved into regular patrol duties to temporarily replace any patrol officers currently on Gulf assignments, so there is no reduction in the number of officers available to handle calls for police service in the city.

Meanwhile, two city personnel, who are members of the Pennsylvania National Guard, are in Iraq as a result of their units being activated for combat service there.

Due to the threat of the new Gulf hurricane (Hurricane Rita), the Texas USAR Task Force, which had been deployed to Louisiana, has been recalled for deployment in Texas, given the prospect of damage there from the new storm. Other federal and FEMA-affiliated resources may be further repositioned, depending upon where Hurricane Rita’s final path takes it.

Reed said there is great concern that the new hurricane could create rises in ocean and river levels in the New Orleans area. The levees there are barely holding back the present water level. Even if the hurricane by-passes Louisiana, there still could be water surges that would push flooding water back into the city. “Allowing significant population return to New Orleans this week raises the risk level,” he said.