Sand and mud clogged those streets not still underwater Wednesday as Cape Cod first responders went door-to-door in New York City searching for victims of Hurricane Sandy.

There was a chill in the air. Odors of fuel oil and sewage mingled. Cars, pushed and carried along by the storm surge Monday, were now askew on sidewalks and streets. Trees blocked roads, sidewalks and, in some instances, doorways.

Many homes were vacant. In those where residents had weathered the storm, there was one question for the search team: "'When will my power be restored?'" said Hyannis Fire Department Lt. Thomas Kenney, one of at least five Cape Cod firefighters now in the city as members of a federal urban search and rescue team.

"It's pretty bad," Kenney said, describing the devastation that greeted him and other members of Massachusetts Task Force 1 as they began their work in neighborhoods devastated by Monday's storm.

Kenney, along with fellow Hyannis firefighters Chris Standish, John Cosmo and Jon Talin, and Yarmouth Fire Lt. Robert Reardon, was sent to hurricane-ravaged areas as part of the Beverly-based team that contracts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide emergency services in disasters.

Reardon got the call Sunday night, leaving the Cape before Sandy arrived here, said Yarmouth fire Capt. Chuck Talbott. "He was sent up to Beverly first and then moved south," said Talbott. "They send them where they are most needed."

It was a similar story for the other 150 members of Task Force 1, which includes specially trained police officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians and civilians, according to its website, www.matf.org.

The team members regularly train in urban search and rescue, including rescue from collapsed buildings, disaster recovery, emergency triage and medicine as part of a program established by the federal government in the late 1980s.

Cape members of the team are veterans at search and rescue. Previously they've been sent to disaster areas such as the towns in Western Massachusetts hit by tornadoes last year and ground zero after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Once on scene, it is not unusual for task force members to work 12- to 14-hour days. Because of leaking fuel and raw sewage spilled into city streets, team members, their clothing and tools have to be decontaminated at the end of every day, Kenney said.

Each member of the team has a special assignment. Talin, for example, is part of a K-9 search and rescue team. Kenney is the leader of an 80-person team including firefighters from New York, Virginia and Maryland, along with New York City police officers. On Wednesday they worked in the Queens section of New York City, which includes the Rockaway peninsula, where 80 to 100 homes burned during the height of the storm because firefighters could not get equipment through flooded streets, according to Kenney.

The team is checking on the welfare of those who remained behind and survived the storm, as well as searching for people who have been reported missing, Kenney said. The homes range from single-family and two-family homes to apartment buildings 15 and 16 stories high. Residents in high rises fared better than some in ground-level homes, he said. But now, without power, those on the higher floors are stuck unless they are willing to traverse down staircases to a world changed by the storm.

Reaction among residents is varied. Most are just worried about what the immediate future holds, he said.

"Some people are saying it looks like it did in New Orleans after Katrina," Kenney said. "People are suffering. It is pretty bad here."

capecodonline.com