Lending A Hand Far From Home

An elite search and rescue team from South Carolina is in the severely damaged St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana, helping in the post-Katrina rescue and recovery efforts.

Tracy Smith rode along with them to get a feel for what they do — and what motivates them in a place so far from their home state.

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Aside from the mud and the water, there were snakes.

Hendrick said they don't bite "if you're aware of their presence. But in this environment, you're not sure if they're present or not."

"We're brothers and we take care of our own," the team's Kenneth Bell told Smith. "We look out for each other. And we try to help each other. … We've had hurricane issues in South Carolina, and people have come and assisted us from all over the country. So it's our turn to pay back for the help that we've received."

It's a shared sentiment. Teams have come from places such as California, Ohio, Colorado, France and Mexico.

Saving lives is what keeps Task Force One going.

"Just that there still might be that one person out there that's waiting on us to come get 'em," says the unit's Renae Webb.

The team is made up of 50 men and women, and four dogs, who go house to house looking for people. They expect the worst but hope for the best.

So far, Webb said, the dogs haven't found anyone, "which is good. That means our job's been successful, and there's nobody out there for us to find."

Then the task force members approached one house with no people, but several pets.

The animals were rescued and the house was spray-painted with a symbol telling other rescuers it had been searched.

There are still many more neighborhoods to search, Smith said, but this team will do it, one house at a time.

"Are there times," she asked Hendrick, "when you're doing this stuff where you say, 'Oh, come on, enough.' "

"Yeah, sometimes you do," Hendricks said. "But then you rehab, get a good night's sleep, recharge your batteries, and you're good to go again. … You look around you, and these people have lost everything. I think that says it all. You know, we're here for them, and that's enough to keep us going."