From a brush fire to Panama: LA County's USA-2 team deploys again
Six firefighters, three structural engineers and a physician left LAX traveling light, Liz Nagy reports for ABC7, after a magnitude-7.7 earthquake.
ABC7
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 452,746 views a day, 19 times a normal first day on this channel (23,404).
LA County search and rescue team heads to Panama after earthquakes
Some of the rescuers flying to Panama had just come off a brush fire in northern Los Angeles County when the call came. ABC7's Short, "LA County search and rescue team heads to Panama after earthquakes," follows the county's USA-2 team as it leaves for a country hit by a magnitude-7.7 earthquake. In the studio introduction, the anchor notes that the team has only recently helped in Colombia.
Reporting live from Los Angeles International Airport, Liz Nagy explains who is going: ten team members, six of them firefighters, plus three structural engineers and one physician. The State Department asked them to travel light. Footage from Panama shows damaged buildings, crushed cars and people reacting as the ground shakes.
"The biggest tool they're bringing is their expertise," says Capt. Aaron Katon of Los Angeles County Fire, describing a team taking "the bare minimums" so it can move quickly and help local authorities find people who are trapped. Batt. Chief Chris Allender speaks about the demands of the work and the work-rest cycles crews train for. Nagy adds that the team expects to stay at least two weeks.
The report passed 200,000 views in its first eight hours, far beyond a typical first day for an ABC7 Short. Its comments are full of thanks for the rescuers and wishes for the people of Panama, and one viewer asks whether search dogs are going too.
The station also had storm coverage much closer to home on the same day: its warning about rain and coastal flooding from Tropical Storm Rachel drew an unusually large audience, followed by footage of high surf destroying the Long Beach boardwalk.
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- Channel
- ABC7
- Subscribers
- 2,980,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 12,495,371
- Channel views, pace per day
- 1,066,311 (on a normal day: 1,841,301)
- Video published
- October 10, 2026
- Video views so far
- 217,121 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 452,746
The numbers
A short airport report that traveled much farther than ABC7's Shorts usually do on their first day.
