Just 24 hours after disaster struck at the Córrego do Feijão dam in Southern Brazil.
Following a phone conversation between Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro, Israel and the IDF made preparations to send an urgent delegation of more than 130 personnel to assist with the rescue attempt. The Delegation included Fire officers, search and rescue specialists, engineers, underwater specialists and medical professionals, all with skills and expertise to assist the Brazilian people and authorities in dealing with this disaster.
The delegation is led by the Commander of the National Search and Rescue Unit in the Home Front Command, Col. (res.) Golan Vach.
In an announcement by the IDF Spokesperson Unit, it was said, “Locating and rescuing missing people is the main need that arises from the area of the disaster in Brazil. Therefore, search and rescue teams will undertake extensive efforts in the area of the disaster, using equipment that includes advanced means of cellular location, underwater radars and drones in order to establish an understanding of the situation.”
Last November, the “INSARAG” test was completed, in which the Home Front Command’s National Search and Rescue Unit was found qualified and joined a limited and prestigious international community of search and rescue units from around the world.
This delegation is the first one to which the National Search and Rescue Unit is dispatched after its qualification.
