Chalmette LA: First search and rescue team in were Canadians

[Ani Ibi]

From Vancouver, B.C. to Chalmette, Louisiana

CTV News

I went to the earthquake in Taiwan and I went to New York City after 9/11, and this is much worse than both of those," said team member Doug Smith, a 10-year veteran..."It's nothing you can prepare for. It's your worst nightmare, plain and simple," he stoically said. The team did meet one group of hurricane survivors turned amateur rescuers...credited with helping save 250 people...

The town has gone through hard times before. The famous Battle of New Orleans was fought there in 1815, with the battlefield preserved as a national monument and civil war cemetery. Kellie, Richard's wife, said..."They were the first ones there and I know a lot of the people in the town were very surprised that the first rescue team that came was from Canada..."

Besides the suffocating heat, "the alligators are there and or course the snakes," she said. "They've been briefed on which snakes to watch out for and he says he's seen a few in the water..." The 46-member Urban Search and Rescue Team were exhausted, but they had some results to show for their work: 119 people rescued.