USAR team leaves tonight for Kathmandu

USAR team leaves tonight for Kathmandu

27 April 2015

A 37-strong urban search and rescue team will leave New Zealand tonight for Nepal as part of a United Nations-co-ordinated rescue effort in the wake of destructive earthquakes in that country.

The team will depart from Auckland aboard a commercial flight to Singapore before connecting with a flight to the Nepalese capital, arriving at midday April 28 local time.

It will take a 12-tonne cache of equipment so it can be fully self-sufficient, including for food, water, power and rescue equipment.

Among the team are 10 search and rescue specialists, two paramedics, a doctor, an engineer, seven logistics personnel and 10 command and IT support staff.

New Zealand Fire Service Chief Executive & National Commander Paul Baxter said the deployment was provisionally for two weeks, but that could be extended if the situation demanded.

He said New Zealand was one 22 countries sending teams to help with urban search and rescue efforts. A UN co-ordinating body in Kathmandu would assign the team to a particular part of the Kathmandu Valley or further afield as part of that wider effort.

Mr Baxter said it was timely that the team had only last month gained UN accreditation as a heavy-capacity USAR team.

“The significance of this is apparent now: the UN knows that we will arrive in the country with the necessary equipment and expertise to hit the ground running and to help, rather than hamper, rescue efforts. We are now in a position to pull our weight on the international stage.

“It’s also gratifying that we can make a contribution to what is a desperate humanitarian situation.”

The New Zealand team had been drawn from USAR units in Auckland, Palmerston North and Christchurch so that the country still had a good spread of protection in the event they were needed locally.

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