Helping: Utahns find survivors as hope wanes

It was the standout moment for members of Utah Task Force One, who spend their days walking, searching and digging for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Near Biloxi, Miss., the team was searching a house for possible survivors, convinced the task was more of a recovery mission, when they found the elderly couple inside was alive.

The husband was bedridden and his wife wouldn't leave his side, said Unified Fire Authority Battalion Chief Erik Sandstrom.

"They didn't have any food, very little water," Sandstrom said. "They were sitting there waiting to die."

The search-and-rescue unit is among dozens of Utahns who have already landed in or are awaiting their call to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast region to either find and rescue the living or identify and bury the dead.

Despite their work and training as funeral directors, Laura Procunier and Brian Sisson, who are on standby with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team (DMORT), say nothing can prepare them for the devastation that has taken the lives of thousands.

"It doesn't matter how common this is in your life," said Sisson, funeral director at Heber City's Olpin-Hoopes Funeral Home. "Seeing that will still impact you one way or another. You just do the best you can."

DMORT teams are under the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and provide a variety of services: mobile morgue operations, forensic examination, remains identification, search and recovery and family assistance.

Some frustration

While Procunier and Sisson expect to be busy, one group of local firefighters says their skills have yet to be put to use, although they arrived in Atlanta on Sunday. Unlike their colleagues in Utah Task Force One, a group of South Salt Lake firefighters assisting in FEMA's outreach program spent Monday going door-to-door passing out information to residents on how they can start the process of making financial claims to the government.

Foote said because of the scale of what FEMA is facing, things were understandably a little disorganized the first day. He admitted that was frustrating for his crew.

"It will take time to get things organized, but that time has to come awfully quick," he said. "(FEMA) has got to make sure they have a plan. We have to look organized and get our act together; otherwise there will be more bad press."

House-to-house

In contrast, the work hasn't stopped for Utah firefighters in Mississippi.