Virginia Task Force 1 returns home after victim recovery efforts in Texas flood zone

Yahoo

4 days ago

CHANTILLY, Va. () — Virginia Task Force 1 (VA TF-1), the commonwealth's specialized search and rescue team, is back home from working victim recovery operations following deadly floods in Texas.
The crew of four people and three dogs returned to their home base in Chantilly just before noon Monday after a 17-day deployment.
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Special handlers and human remains detection dogs from VA TF-1 searched tough terrain, through debris, floodwaters and riverbeds, every day for more than two weeks, working to recover people missing in the devastating floods.
The highly trained team included canine specialists Kristi Bartlett and Charlotte Grove and their human remains detection dogs, Athena and Ivy.
'When you're searching 60 miles of shoreline, you're like, 'Okay, I'm trying to find a needle in a haystack.' But, every day we're still giving it our all, really searching and gridding out our areas,' Bartlett said.
Grove and Ivy have been paired up on past deployments, working together in search and recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian ravaged Florida back in 2022.
'You still get surprised when you get there, at the amount of devastation that there actually was,' Grove said of her arrival in Texas.
This time, the pair worked 12+ hour days sniffing and searching through debris and floodwater in the Texas heat.
'We just keep working. We want to keep working until every last person has been brought home,' Grove said.
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'We're definitely focused on the mission. Just trying to make sure that we bring closure for everybody and their loved ones,' Bartlett said. 'We're definitely tired. We want to get our life back to normal, but also do more training. So when the next disaster happens, [Athena] is ready to go back out the door.'
While 10-year-old canine Athena may have more training ahead, 11-year-old canine Ivy is a bit older.
Grove said this may have been Ivy's final deployment before she heads into retirement.
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