9/11 response team leaves Newburgh for Haiti

New York Task Force 1, the urban search and rescue team that responded to the 9/11 attacks eight years ago, left Stewart Air National Guard Base in Newburgh for the earthquake-stricken city of Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, early on Saturday, Jan. 16. One of the two Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft departed with 54 passengers and 11 pallets of cargo, the other with 26 passengers, four search dogs, three vehicles, and four pallets of cargo. The 80 members of the Federal Emergency Management Agency-sponsored team include firefighters, police officers and paramedics, all from New York. The earthquake that shook Haiti's capital on Jan. 12 was the worst earthquake in the region in more than 200 years. As many as 200,000 are feared dead. Photo by Tech Sgt. Michael O'Halloran, 105 Airlift Wing