A local firefighter saw first-hand the damage Hurricane Laura left in Louisiana.
Mike Pruitt, deputy chief of the Bargersville Community Fire Department, just returned from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he served as a public information officer for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue teams, which responded in the aftermath of Hurricane Laura.
Hurricane Laura barreled ashore in parts of Louisiana and Texas last week. A Category 4 storm, Laura struck with 150 mph winds that shredded buildings and homes, destroyed power grids and killed 17 people.
Four task force teams — from Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Colorado — were deployed to southwest Louisiana to help in the hurricane’s aftermath. When Pruitt arrived on Aug. 28, he traveled, reporting on what each team was doing. He covered almost 500 miles a day, traveling between Lake Charles, La., which weathered the worst of the storm, to Vernon Parish, La., where Indiana Task Force 1 was stationed.
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"It was a long day every day just traveling in the area, trying to get from point A to point B to get the teams the help they needed," Pruitt said.
As a public information officer, Pruitt reported the information he gathered to FEMA and any news outlets requesting details about the task force teams and their response.
This was the 12th time Pruitt traveled to another state to provide relief in the aftermath of a hurricane, either for FEMA or with Indiana Task Force 1, which he is also a member of.
Still, he wasn’t prepared for what he saw.
"If there was a tornado in Indiana that was 50 miles wide and traveled 100 miles, that’s how I would describe the damage path … Lake Charles was turned upside down," Pruitt said.
He compared Hurricane Laura to Hurricane Michael, a Category Five storm that struck Florida’s Panhandle in 2018, causing $25 million in damages.
"It’s one of those things that before I went on my first hurricane deployment, I couldn’t fathom the devastation mother nature can do to a community," Pruitt said. "It can literally wipe out everything, people’s livelihoods … just the scale of everything and what it takes to go in and conduct search and rescue missions."
But responding to Hurricane Laura was different than past responses, mostly due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. FEMA had been preparing in advance with protocols on how to conduct safe searches and rescues while also social distancing, Pruitt said. All first responders were given strict orders to check temperatures and wear masks and gloves, and keep their distance when necessary, he said.
"You throw a pandemic into the middle of a hurricane and it adds even more of a challenge," Pruitt said. "Where we were going, people probably didn’t have worrying about COVID at the top of their lists after they just lost everything … we had to make sure we were doing everything right to keep our folks healthy."
The residents Pruitt talked to who chose not to evacuate the area before the storm said they would never stay behind during a hurricane again, he said.
"When you ask them how it was, they say they were scared to death, and they would never do it again. The ones who did stay behind may have underestimated its power a little bit," Pruitt said.
Other Johnson County firefighters are also part of the state’s task force, but none were asked to report this time, Pruitt said.
First responders who are part of Indiana Task Force 1 receive routine special training in a variety of tactics, including search and rescue, hazardous materials and logistics to prepare for deployment to natural disaster zones, Pruitt said. Even though Indiana likely will never experience a hurricane, the training the task force receives also benefits first responders when responding to local natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods or tornadoes, Pruitt said.
"If you have a tornado here locally, our members of Indiana Task Force 1, now they’re able to use those skills here," Pruitt said.
Hurricane response has taught Pruitt to be more aware of how prepared he and other local first responders are for natural disasters, he said.
"It’s just a reminder that hey, we’ve got to be prepared for these types of disasters," Pruitt said. "It makes you think, ‘OK, what do I need to do to prepare for a tornado, or to lose power for a week, or an earthquake?’"
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"If there was a tornado in Indiana that was 50 miles wide and traveled 100 miles, that’s how I would describe the damage path … Lake Charles was turned upside down."
— Mike Pruitt, local firefighter and FEMA public information officer
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