Oklahoma Task Force 1 Updates On Hurricane Delta Recovery

Oklahoma Task Force 1 members are on the ground in Louisiana for the ninth day on Thursday, helping out those impacted by Hurricane Delta in any way they can.

A couple of those crews spoke with News On 6 to give an update on the progress they have made while there.

Oklahoma Task Force 1 Captain Terry Sivadon has been to Louisiana three times this year to help with search and recovery missions after the hurricanes. He is currently in Baton Rouge helping guide crews to where help is needed the most. 

“This is my third trip this year, yes we came for Hurricane Laura and Sally, and now Delta,” Sivadon says.

With each trip and every devastated family he meets, he says he becomes a little more heartbroken.

“With the two storms so close together, the blue tarps are blowing off from the first storm,” Sivadon says.

TFD Deputy Chief Chuck French says this is his first OKTF-1 trip and it was hard seeing how much devastation had already been caused with more on the way.

“It’s just that bad gut feeling, you feel bad for the people that live here, they haven’t fully recovered yet and then they’re going to get another pretty horrendous storm,” French says.

The Tulsa crew’s main job is going door to door in each parish, making sure nobody was left behind or left without communication. The teams are doing secondary searches for people and at the same time helping the state with damage assessments that provide recovery and funding resources. He says a big part of their day is picking through wide-spread rubble.

“We just had a compounded issue where trees were down on top of old trees and houses with damage before had more damage and there was more debris around those areas,” French says.

The crews are dispatched for up to fourteen days at a time, meaning if Louisiana doesn’t ask them to stay, they could potentially be on their way home late next week. If they are asked to stay, the crews could be there for another three to four weeks.