Second Va.-based team returns

FAIRFAX

Led in a procession by a police escort to their training academy, members of Fairfax County's urban search and rescue team arrived home Thursday after spending two weeks working in earthquake-stricken Haiti.

Members of Virginia Task Force 1 landed at Dulles Airport traveled to the academy, where they were greeted by their families.

There were 113 returning team members, including doctors and paramedics, who deployed with 70 tons of equipment and supplies. Seven dogs also traveled and returned with the team.

Waiting to greet her husband, Paul, at the academy were Brenda May, her 16-year-old son Travis and her 11-year-old daughter Julia. "I get to hug him first," Julia told WJLA.

Team task force leader Bob Zoldos, 40, of Lovettsville, Va., said Thursday night that he arrived on the island to find a vastly different scene from the one he encountered during a rescue mission when a school collapsed in 2008.

"The earthquake disrupted everything," he said. "Even the airport is damaged. It devastated all of (Haiti's) resources."

Zoldos said when the Virginia team first arrived, members met with local authorities and set up a reception center for other international teams.

Once a base of operation was established, Zoldos said, the team went to places where trapped survivors were, often getting information by e-mail or cell phone.

He recalls one rescue, that of a 27-year-old woman from a collapsed building at the University of Port-au-Prince. That rescue took more than 26 hours.

"Haiti has suffered for a while before (the earthquake), Zoldos said. "We took some really positive actions, like the donation of tents, helping local hospitals, UNICEF and working with USAID."

After a several days of rest, the team must work to rebuild. Zoldos said tents, communication equipment and uniforms "which get pretty shredded crawling around in rubble," need to be replaced.

-- The Associated Press

In this Jan. 17 photo released by the U.S. Air Force, a member of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team from Fairfax, marks a building after rescue operations turned up no survivors in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. (AP Photo | U.S. Air Force, Tech. Sgt. James L. Harper Jr.)

Rescuers from Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team stand outside a collapsed hospital after searching for a survivor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Jan. 21. Rescuers continued their efforts to search for survivors that may still be trapped in the rubble more than a week after a massive earthquake stuck Haiti.(AP Photo | Jae C. Hong)

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