Texas Deploys Elite Task Force to Louisiana

Whatever happens in Louisiana, Americans from every state will immediately do whatever they can to help. Texas' Gov. Perry has already deployed Texas' Task Force One, the state's crack search and rescue team:

AUSTIN -- Governor Rick Perry has authorized the immediate deployment of Texas Task Force One, the state's 90-member elite urban search and rescue team, to Louisiana in preparation for Hurricane Katrina's landfall along the Louisiana / Mississippi coast.

Texas Task Force One is part of the 28 team national urban search and rescue system under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Texas Task Force One will provide needed assistance with rescue and recovery efforts in the hurricane's aftermath and is currently being staged in Shreveport, La., awaiting assignment.

Texas Task Force One is capable of responding to mass-casualty disasters and is trained and equipped to locate and rescue persons trapped by flooding, collapsed structures and confined space in highly populated areas.

In addition, Gov. Perry has authorized the activation up to 200 members of the Texas State Guard to support shelter operations and to assist the American Red Cross in southeast and eastern Texas as evacuees from Louisiana arrive in Texas.

The Governor also has deployed a regional assistance team from the Governor's Division of Emergency Management to Baton Rouge to assist officials with the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness. Perry also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas Department of Transportation to remain on stand by to provide assistance as necessary.