A team of firefighters and K9s from the Czech Republic were in the Texas Hill Country last week helping with the recovery efforts from the July 4 floods.
The 16 firefighters and their specially trained dogs were part of the Czech Urban Search and Rescue Team (USAR), a division of the Fire Rescue Service of the Czech Republic. They arrived in Texas last Sunday and began search efforts on Monday near the town of Center Point.
Major Jiří Studnička, a member of the team, explained their role in an interview with Radio Prague International: “The day was marked, you could say, by a sort of secondary search—which for us means a final, thorough sweep. No other search teams will follow—only recovery crews. So anyone we don’t find now is, unfortunately, lost forever.”
They came at the request of the Texas Military Department, which has maintained close ties with the Czech Republic since the nation was established in 1993.
“The search efforts are very much indicative of the Czech Republic’s dedication and solidarity with Texas, said Brian Vanicek, Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic, in an interview with the Record last week. “This team is known world-over for providing aid during global disasters.”
Vanicek noted the close cultural ties between the Czech Republic and Texas, especially in Central Texas, where hundreds of thousands of people claim Czech descent. When Czech President Petr Pavel visited the U.S. for a NATO summit last year, he took one day out of his busy schedule to visit the Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center (TCHCC) in La Grange.
Jennifer Lane of TCHCC said this isn’t the first time the Czech Republic has come to the aid of Texas in a time of need. The Czech Republic donated nearly $240,000 to the La Grange community in 2017 to help recovery efforts after the Hurricane Harvey flood. In 2013, they donated $200,000 to help rebuild the Sokol Gymnasium in West following the devastating fertilizer plant explosion.
Texas has repaid the favors, too. The Texas-based Czech fraternal organization SPJST provides financial assistance to the Czech community of Hrušky in 2021 following a rare tornado and the Czech village of Jesinek after devastating floods in January of this year. And last September, when massive floods swept through the Czech region of Southern Moravia, a group of airmen from the Texas Air National Guard happened to be in Czech Republic for a joint training exercise. The Texas airmen pivoted their mission and deployed an MQ-9 Reaper drone to search for the missing.
Governor Greg Abbott and U.S. Air Force General Steven Nordhaus met with the USAR team last week in Kerrville to personally thank them. The Czech team, along with a group of search and rescue personnel from Mexico, were the only foreign aid workers invited to assist.