SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL MONDAY SEPTEMBER 17, 2001

TO THE RESCUE: Well-wishers wave goodbye to two Palm Beach County passengers aboard a private jet at Boca Raton Airport Sunday. The trauma specialists flew to New York City to help relief workers cope.

LOCAL RESCUERS HELP NEW YORK: Emotional Support for Rescue

Experts to sift Trade Center rubble for life

BY ARDY FRIEDBERG, STAFF WRITER

South Florida's 74-member Urban Search and Rescue team, on standby for nearly a week and eager all the while to get into the fight to save lives at the World Trade Center site, sent an ad­vance team into the area late Sunday and will be fully deployed this morning.

"For the last several days we've been checking out our equipment, and we're ready to go. Everyone is physically and mentally prepared," said team member Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue Division Chief Stephen Mclnerny. "It's still a search and rescue oper­ation. Rescue is still a possi­bility."

The South Florida group, one of two teams from this area, has members from 23 area fire departments in the three South Florida counties. The unit, known as National Disaster Preparedness Team FL-TF2, is part of a national network of 28 teams that op­erate under the direction of

the Federal Emergency Management Agency and are on six-hour standby to respond to all types of disasters from hurricanes to earthquakes.

The team, which was alerted for travel on Tuesday, ar­rived at Fort Dix, N.J., on Saturday morning after their two buses, three equipment trucks with 20 tons of equipment, and a convoy of other vehicles made the 24-hour road trip from Homestead Air Reserve Base.

Heavy rigging specialist Lt. Joe Bartlett, a 21-year veteran of the Palm Beach County Fire Department who lives in Boca Raton, knows the Twin Towers area well.

"I worked on a crane there when the buildings were go­ing up in 1966," he said on Sunday. "We would have liked to be here earlier, but there are still places where people could be alive. We aren't sure what we'll see oth­er than a pile of rubble, but we want to hit the door and go right to work."

Bartlett, 53, who has been part of four major rescue ef­forts in the past, said he thinks even a week after the buildings were destroyed there is still hope.

Florida trauma team heads to New York

BY SCOTT TRAVIS, EDUCATION WRITER

BOCA RATON - As dozens of friends gave them a patriotic, flag-­waving send-off, two mental health specialists boarded a Lear Jet Sunday on their way to New York to help relief workers deal with their trauma.

Sherrie Raz, a therapist in Boca Raton, and Jeannie Hoban, a West Palm Beach clinical social worker, are part of relief group called Green Cross Projects. The humanitarian service organiza­tion was started in 1995 and has helped assist people in Oklahoma City and Kosovo.

Their private, eight-seat pas­senger plane left Boca Raton Air­port at 12:45 p.m. and then picked up six other specialists in Tampa who are part of the same effort. The plane arrived at Teterboro Airport near Newark, N.J., about 4:45 p.m.

More than 30 people, dressed in patriotic colors, held up American flags and sang, God Bless America as the two Palm Beach County specialists got ready for takeoff.

"We wanted to let them know we're behind them," said Julie Brown of Lake Worth. "The people in New York need so much that I couldn't imagine. I know whatever they can do will be appreciated."

Raz and Hoban said they have no idea what to expect.

"We're going to assess the situation and then decide what kind of trauma counseling is needed," Raz said.

While Raz expressed no fears about the trip, her mother, Eve Bernstein, said she was apprehensive.

"I'm concerned about all the pain my daughter will have to be facing, when she meets all the people who have lost or are looking for their loved ones," Bernstein said. "It's a painful thing, but she's very courageous, and she's been trained in trauma."

Although they likely will encounter all types of people touched by the tragedy, their focus will be on relief workers, such as police officers and firefighters, said Cynthia Rubenstein, co-director of the South Florida chapter of the Green Cross Projects Recruiting Center.

Rubenstein said many of the relief workers in New York are dealing with "compassion fatigue," a condition in which those who assist in tragedies begin to feel the same symptoms as those directly affected by tragedy. The symptoms include sleep loss, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks and depression.

"I think with all this there is a sense of hopelessness, a feeling of loss of control, that you can't do anything," Rubenstein said. "You begin to stop taking care of yourself both emotionally and physically."

She said many of the workers are so focused on trying to save people that they don't realize the emotional toll the situation is taking on them. Many have worked continuously, with little or no sleep, to try to find survivors.
Rubenstein said the Green Cross specialists likely would encourage the workers to get rest and remind them they are doing a great job, even if they can't save 5,000 people.

Jet Aviation of Boca Raton provided use of the plane, splitting the costs with Ramada Plaza Resorts in Fort Lauderdale and Orlando.