Hurricane Katrina:  Search and Rescue

Night vision enables a safe, successful mission.

During the first weeks following Hurricane Katrina's strike on New Orleans, many areas of the city were still out of control, especially at night. The Gentilly district was rough before the storm and now was completely cut off from the world—it had been rendered an island by the rising black water. Accessing the area required launching boats from an interstate on-ramp, traversing many blocks by water, then embarking on a lengthy foot patrol – all in areas that no longer had street or directional signs.

One night, five senior members of our SWAT team's maritime component were dispatched into the center of Gentilly for a midnight rescue of eight trapped survivors hiding in the upper floors of a mausoleum. Xavier University was burning that night only about a mile away, and signs of heavy looting were everywhere.

When we arrived, we realized that utilizing any white light in the operation would expose us to potential sniper fire. We were fortunate to have recently been issued new ITT Night Vision PVS-14s and related hardware for helmet mounting. Using that equipment as the cornerstone of an IR illumination and weapon sighting system, we were able to navigate a route using GPS at night, with no use of white light to an unfamiliar objective.

We ultimately were able to locate the hiding survivors, who were the first to know of our presence in the area. We have now equipped and trained our entire team with ITT Night Vision equipment. Notably, the entire team recently passed our SWAT firearms qualification course in total darkness, using only our helmet-mounted night vision and M-4 mounted IR lasers. Team members are highly enthusiastic about these products and the capabilities they bring to our team.

Lt. Shane Evans

SWAT Commander

East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office

Baton Rouge, La.

Click here to see the ITT Difference