Capt. Marc Campet, the search team leader with Virginia Task Force 1, is taking a search and rescue team from Fairfax and Montgomery counties to Texas to help after disastrous floods last weekend left over 120 people dead or missing.
The team includes three search dogs capable of detecting people buried under debris. They left Friday evening and hoped to be ready to work Saturday morning.
“Our canines are incredible animals. They’re capable of smelling victims entombed in rubble as a cause of earthquakes, and in this case, flooding,” Campet told WTOP.
He said the still-flooded areas in south-central Kerr County, Texas, are expected to be difficult to traverse.
“The challenges that we expect are steep terrain, large areas of debris that have floated down the river and collected in areas,” Campet said. “We will work as long as the emergency managers that are down there already working need us, and we won’t go home before then.”
Campet has been with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department for 19 years and with the task force for 13. This is only his second time being sent to Texas.
“This is something that I love to do, although it is bittersweet. We are going down to help people that are totally devastated, but I have been trained in such a way where I can help those people in need,” he said.
He said they’re prepared for long, rotating shifts to support the other teams on the mission in Texas.
WTOP’s Scott Gelman contributed to this report.
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