Tulsa Task Force Members Among Those Who Searched For Survivors In Moore

About 40 local volunteers with Oklahoma's Urban Search and Rescue Task Force have collectively spent countless hours searching for victims of the Moore tornado.

The Tulsa task force is made up of 29 Tulsa firefighters and 10 others from Bixby, Broken Arrow, Muskogee and Sand Springs.

They shared with us what it's like preparing for a mass tragedy they hope will never happen.

"We were deployed there to basically search that school from top to bottom," said search team manager Keith Beck.

They'd been up for 36 hours, but sleep could wait--the search could not.

"What our operation is, is to go through that school as meticulously as we can and remove all the debris and pick through it," Beck said.

Tulsa's task force arrived in Moore at 5 a.m. and their assignment is Plaza Towers Elementary School. They're 39 members strong and brought five dogs with them for the search.

"We ran those dogs through it several times in several different areas, different dogs, just to see if they would pick anything up, at all," Beck said.

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The team has worked all kinds of disasters. Every member of the task force volunteered to be a part of it. They spend hours training every month - all year round - just to get ready for this one deployment.

Their last assignment was the Joplin tornado. This time, they're in their home state, but the destruction is just as heartbreaking.

"You have to put the devastation aside and do your job, but it's pretty hard to look at, especially when you are searching for live victims," said Tulsa task force leader Captain Terry Sivadon.

It's even harder when your search is for the smallest inside an elementary school.

"That's tough, because you know what you're looking for in that elementary school, which is children, so that can be tough mentally. It's tough on the members," Beck said.

The task force members say it's also tough when residents go back to see their homes, or what's left of them.

"As you're moving in and out, you see those people and you see the devastation that they have faced and stuff, and that becomes kind of an emotional toll on you, too," Beck said.

They did not find anyone during their search of the debris.

Tulsa's Task Force Team was back home Wednesday night.

Between the Tulsa team and their counterparts in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma's Urban Search and Rescue Task Force searched Plaza Towers Elementary for 24 straight hours.