# got to deploy with my USAR dog!



## Jay Quinn (Apr 1, 2012)

went with my USAR taskforce and a second K9 team to Rockhampton, Yeppoon and surrounding areas post Cyclone Marcia... thankfully we were not required for any searches so we just made ourselves busy as gofers and the dogs were an awesome morale boost for the team... there was quite a lot of damage to infrastucture (power grid was a MESS!) and quite a few homes lost but to the best of our knowledge no human injuries or deaths... 

it was my first deployment and i am eternally grateful to have had the chance to go to something local (within Oz) that wasn't too bad, i now have a much better idea of what i need to pack and where to pack it, and what sort of things to expect (like the fact we actually get issued with a heap of stuff, and there is lots of hurry up and wait until we get where we're going!)... 

the dogs got to ride in the bus, cruise around in the vehicles with the crews, and even got to go up in a chopper, and i think the dog handled that better than i did, as i'd been given one of the electronic information gathering devices and got major motion sickness while trying to use it as we were flying - i had to hand it off to someone else and sat there with my headset off for 10mins going to myself "i will not spew in the chopper, i will not spew in the chopper..." lol... 

unfortunately i had to leave a day earlier than the rest of the team as my work had a sad and needed me back  it really sucked having to leave on my own 


we made the news, here are some links... 

https://www.facebook.com/QldFireandRescueService/posts/794754440605118

https://www.facebook.com/QldFireand...30590.-2207520000.1425016736./794253947321834

https://newsroom.psba.qld.gov.au/Co...as-a-place-in-cyclone-response/1020/1060/5372


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## Meg O'Donovan (Aug 20, 2012)

Good on ya, Team Oz. 
Hope all will be well soon with Queensland. Did the storm only hit the coast or did it go inland? Was it the dramatic end to a long drought?


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## Meg O'Donovan (Aug 20, 2012)

PS Were the surfers out?


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## Sarah Platts (Jan 12, 2010)

pretty awesome! Its nice when you can use your training for real and not just for the pretend. Of course, the sad thing is that means a disaster happened and now a lot of folks are homeless or worse.

I feel for you and the motion sickness. Never had much of a problem until I got an ear infection which makes me super motion sick if I try to read or write while moving. My sympathies.


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## Paul Cipparone (Feb 13, 2011)

Well done Jay ! stay safe my friend.


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

Stay safe......glad u get 2 go


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## Jay Quinn (Apr 1, 2012)

to the best of my knowledge the cyclone just dumped a heap of rain on the coast... don't think much of it got inland  there is ALWAYS some crazy mofo trying to surf in that sh!t over here lmao... 

yes it was sad at the level of destruction (i am reading now around 350 homes lost) but as i said at the end of the day it could have been a heck of a lot worse (eg cyclone Tracy that hit Darwin on christmas day in 74, just flattened the place and killed 60+ people... many moved away and never went back)... so all in all it was a pretty damn cushy deployment and a very good learning experience!


some more general news links:

weather bureau: http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/history/marcia74.shtml

wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Marcia

http://www.news.com.au/technology/e...of-whats-to-come/story-fnjwvztl-1227240222096


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Excellent!

It's hard to beat that sort of real world "training".


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