NEW YORK (AP) — A team of 80 search-and-rescue specialists from New York City is on a mission to Haiti.
The squad is made up of elite members of the police and fire departments who have unique expertise working in collapsed buildings. The group touched down in Haiti on Saturday after a long wait for clearance to land at the overloaded Port-au-Prince airport.
Members include NYPD Deputy Inspector Robert Lukach (LOO’-Cash), who labored in the rubble of the World Trade Center after the Sept. 11 attacks.
He says the destruction in Haiti is similar, but the buildings are smaller and he has more hope of finding survivors.
The unit is one of 28 federal urban search and rescue teams around the U.S.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake Tuesday devastated Haiti’s capital.