Virginia Rescue Team Arrives in Japan

Virginia's elite rescue task force has arrived in coastal Japan.

Seventy-four members of Virginia Task Force 1 have been arriving by helicopter into a mountainous region 100 miles north of Sendai, to help rescue victims of the disastrous tsunamai that hit Japan last week.

The VATF-1 team will be conducting rescue operations around the seaport of Ofunato.  Battalion Chief Michael Schaff told NBC 4 in a phone interview that rural villages in region's valleys have been swamped by mudslides and and high water.

Weather in the mountainous area is cold, and snow was expected this week.

The team carries with it a heavy package of rescue equipment, including inflatable boats and rescue canines.  Paramedics, structural engineers, and technical rescue specialists are all part of the Virginian unit.

The task force flew into Misawa Air Base on Sunday.  On the way to Japan, the team was joined by a West Coast rescue crew, California Task Force 2.  Both American units will be operating under the command of Tokyo Fire Department.

Closer to Sendai, American naval vessels have moved 100 miles off shore on Sunday after elevated levels of radiation were detected in the air.  A Swedish nuclear power official said winds were blowing radioactive smoke vented from the damaged Fukushima reactor out into the Pacific.  On Monday, Japanese officials reported that over 1,000 bodies had washed ashore along the Miyagi prefecture.

VATF-1 has assisted in disaster response around the world for the past 25 years.  The team's first international mission was in 1988, when it rescued earthquake victims in Armenia.  The team has also been deployed domestically to the bombing in Oklahoma City and the attack on the Pentagon.

The team will make their base of operations in Ofunato, a fishing hub with a population of 40,000.  The town was hit by a tsunamai once before in 1960.

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