Crime & Safety

Fairfax Rescue Team Starts Operations in Japan

The team reaches Japan.

Editor's Note: By the time you read this story, the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team will have completed their first day of operations in quake-ravaged Japan. Dranesville Supervisor John Foust sent along this Sunday update from Deputy Chief Keith H. Johnson, Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department, Special Operations Division. It has not been edited.

The following is an update for the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team, Virginia Task Force One (VATF-1) which has deployed 74 personnel to include search and rescue canines, physicians, paramedics, structural engineers, technical search and rescue specialists, hazardous material specialists and other support personnel and approximately 30 tons of equipment as part of  the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID),* and the Office Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) response to Japan to assist in the response to the earthquake and Tsunami.  
 
VATF-1 departed Fairfax County on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 10:30 EST P.M. enroute to Dulles International Airport.  The team departed Dulles International Airport at 2A.M. on Saturday, March 12th on a flight to Misawa United States Airbase in Japan.  The team traveled through Los Angeles, California to pick up USAR CATF-2 who will travel with Fairfax County VATF-1 to Japan.  Both VATF-1 and CATF-2 departed LAX airport enroute to Anchorage, Alaska at 3:40 EST P.M. on  Saturday, 3/12.  The teams cache of equipment departed Andrews Air Force Base with two members from Fairfax County and is slated to arrive in Misawa, Japan at approximately 10:30 A.M. EST, Sunday, March 13th.
 
The USAR teams arrived at Misawa Air Base in Northern Japan at 1:30 A.M. EST on  Sunday, March 13th.  Misawa Air Base is home to the 35th U.S. Fighter Wing. (Misawa is  about 150 miles north of Sendai, the area hardest hit from the tsunami.)

Tentatively, VATF-1 will depart for Onufato, Japan (Iwate Prefecture) on Monday, March 14th at 6:00 A.M. local time in Japan.  I have attached a map indicating the area of the teams arrival in relation to the epicenter.  Communication within Japan are limited with our communication with the team limited to satellite phones and some email. 

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(Ofunato is a fishing village near Miyagi Prefecture, according to the air base Web site.)

 This capabilities of VATF-1 has been expanded on this mission in that this response included a swift water boat response which includes a deployment of four swift water boats, swift water rescue gear and trained personnel.  Many of the Fairfax County technical rescue workers deployed maintain swift water certifications which will aid in their rescue efforts. The team also deployed with cold weather gear due to the wide variance in temperatures in this part of Japan.
 
Media to include reporters from CNN have now been embedded with the team and have already been reporting on the teams activities.  As always with this type of deployment, the mission and itinerary are subject to change at any time.

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*Costs of the deployments are paid by the federal government, according to Foust's note.


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