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Local crews work front line in N.Y.

The call to action came shortly after terrorism touched our nation’s eastern shores on Tuesday.

“It seems like forever and a day ago,” said Cathie Schmidlin, public affairs officer for Kaibab National Forest and team information officer on the Incident Support Team in New York, via a phone call. “The devastation is incredible.

“The piles and piles of building debris is just incredible.” This scene was taken by members of the Southwest Area Incident Management Team in New York.

Schmidlin is part of the Southwest Area Incident Management Team, which is responsible for support of search and rescue efforts and is run under the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

She said the people of New York have gathered together to help out as much as they can.

“There must have been a mile and a half of people waiting in the sun to volunteer,” Schmidlin said. “It’s the community coming forth to say ‘What can we do?’”

There is also a tremendous amount of sorrow and mourning going on after the tradgity.

“You also see the sadness,” Schmidlin said. “You walk by local fire departments and see photos of people missing.”

The job of the incident management team is to supply the search and rescue workers the supplies they need.

“It could be anywhere from a respirator or a mask for a rescue dog,” Schmidlin said. “We’re running a mobilization center — a warehouse where supplies and materials are dropped off.”

Schmidlin said she only plays a small part in the big picture of the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. She said the real heros are the people searching for survivors.

“The task force is skilled and experienced in urban search and rescue,” she said. “There are about 600 personnel with their search dogs. It’s pretty incredible.”

Schmidlin is not the only person from the area working the front lines in New York.

“There are a number of people from Flagstaff and northern Arizona,” she said. “Coconino National Forest has by far the the most numbers.”

Yavapai County, Grand Canyon National Park, the Forest Service and other fire departments in the area are helping out, Schmidlin said. Included in this list is George Sheppard, wildlife biologist with the Williams District who is a division-group supervisor at the site; Donna Nemeth, fire information officer on the South Rim, who is serving as an incident information officer; and Dan Oltrogge, Grand Canyon National Park fire management officer who is in New York serving as an incident commander trainee for the incident management team.

The team is staying in mid-town Manhatten and work out of the Jacob-Javits Convention Center, approximately three miles from the World Trade Center site.

People interested in viewing what the locals crews are seeing can log onto the Southwest Area Incident Management Team’s website at: www.fireteam-sw.com.


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