As the rain in Houston stops and water from Hurricane Harvey recedes, the firefighters of Utah Task Force 1 are still looking for people who may be trapped in their homes by floodwater.
Support crews haven’t reached everyone who needs help in the nation’s fourth-largest city and its environs, Task Force 1 spokeswoman Frankie Grant said Thursday, but the elite Utah search and rescue team has rescued 400 people in two days.
The team, which is composed mostly of firefighters trained in responding to disasters, has been searching neighborhoods by boat because they aren’t able to access most areas by foot.
“Sometimes it takes some time to get to all of the areas, which is unfortunate,” she said.
The search is focused on assisted living facilities, retirement homes, and where there are people who are sick or need extra assistance, Grant said. Authorities are using ”reverse 911” calls to find out where trapped people are.
Operations start as the sun comes up, and the team of 46 people takes its four boats out until the sun goes down.
Each boat carries a few task members, but the team leaves the majority of each boat empty so it can rescue more people.
The boat teams go out, pick up people and bring them to another vehicle that takes them to a shelter, Grant said.
On Wednesday, while the team staged for a mission in a parking lot, a pregnant woman drove up, asking for help. She was in labor, and the team helped her get an ambulance to get to the hospital, where she delivered the baby.
The team is bracing for some water to come back into Houston, Grant said. Although the rain stopped, authorities in Texas worry about levees and dams. They plan to release some of the water to prevent dams and levees from collapsing.