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Tampa Rescue Personnel Waiting To Help New Orleans

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Rescue dog Powder lays down at the feet of Tampa Firefighter Paramedic Lt. Brian Smithey as Smithey talks with reporters at Tampa Fire Dept. Station 1 on. Smithey and Powder have been put on alert and are packed and ready to assist if needed in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.

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By RICH SHOPES | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 31, 2008

TAMPA - Powder might face the toughest challenge of her life, depending on the damage inflicted by Hurricane Gustav.

Yet with winds swirling and under cloudy skies Sunday, she seemed content to lounge around, occasionally sniffing the driveway.

"It's all a game to her," said Lt. Brian Smithey of Tampa Fire Rescue.

Powder, a 3-year-old black lab, is one of two search and rescue dogs at the fire department waiting to be dispatched to the hurricane-battered Gulf Coast.

There was no telling Sunday if the 58-pound dog and fellow rescuer, Cinder, 5, also a black lab, will meet up in Miami with other emergency rescue workers under the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

In addition to being assigned to Tampa Fire Rescue, the dogs and their handlers, Smithey and Lt. Roger Picard, work with FEMA.

On Sunday, they were awaiting word about whether they'll meet a convoy packed with emergency supplies heading out of Miami or stay put to deal with Tropical Storm Hanna, which might veer into Florida.

At a moment's notice, they could be called to join the convoy. If that happens, Powder and Cinder might undergo their first post-hurricane, search-and-rescue operation.

"It could five minutes from now. It could be tomorrow," said Smithey, who worked with other dogs three years ago after Katrina. "We're packed and ready to go."

For the moment, Powder seemed content to lounge around fire station No. 1 in downtown Tampa, submitting to an occasional pat on the head or chest rub.

Like Picard and Smithey, many disaster relief workers in the Tampa Bay area spent Sunday watching Gustav's march across the Gulf of Mexico on TV, waiting for word on whether they'll join thousands of relief workers already outside New Orleans.

Powder and Cinder have trained several days a week for more than two years at the Fire Academy at 34th Street and Adamo Drive and at Independence Recycling in Brandon for this moment.

They gained some practical experience in December when they joined a search-and-rescue operation at a collapsed building in Jacksonville.

This would be their first hurricane.

Smithey wasn't worried: "It's all a game to her. It's like hide and seek."

In rescue drills, Powder's reward is a canvas pull toy.

The Salvation Army's Tampa chapter was on standby as well.

Spokeswoman Dulcinea Cuellar said its food canteens are still helping flooding victims from Tropical Storm Fay, so they might not join the other chapters taking positions outside New Orleans and Gulf Coast cities.

Thirty of the food trucks are in Louisiana and Mississippi, said Salvation Army spokesman Marck Jones.

"We're stationed far enough from landfall but close enough to respond immediately," he said.

Abi Weaver, of the Red Cross' Tampa chapter, spent Hurricane Katrina three years ago organizing evacuation efforts in Washington state.

But Sunday, as the storm seemed to be on a direct path to New Orleans, she was just outside the city on her way to a shelter at the northern edge of Lake Pontchartrain in Covington, which fell just outside Katrina's storm surge.

The 27-year-old was preparing to spend the night at a shelter set up at a school.

Earlier Sunday, she had handed out water bottles and snacks to evacuees waiting to board buses headed to dozens of shelters north of New Orleans.

She couldn't say how many people heeded several days of warnings; but by Sunday, after the evacuations were made mandatory, the city seemed deserted.

"Windows were boarded up. There was very little traffic in New Orleans. The long weekend helped," she said. "Those I talked to were taking this evacuation very seriously. They went through Hurricane Katrina and were not taking any chances."

Weaver said she was expecting to spend the night distributing food, water, flashlights, batteries, toilet paper, blankets and bedding, although many people had brought pillows, sleeping bags and inflatable air mattresses.

By Sunday afternoon, the New Orleans weather gave no hint a hurricane was coming.

"It was sunny and 89 degrees. There was a breeze, but it wasn't anything unusual," said Weaver, who couldn't say when she was coming home.

"The Red Cross will be there before, during and after the storm, until all those needs are met."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be reached at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

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