Brendan McCluskey responded with additional information on more “non-FEMA” teams that exist in the nation. See his reply here:
“Eric…your article, How Many Urban Search and Rescue Teams Do We Have in the U.S.? (govtech.com), is a bit inaccurate.
“While you are correct that there are 28 FEMA-sponsored US&R teams (Task Forces), there are many, many more state- and local-based teams available in the event of a major disaster. And, that doesn’t include the many departments, like the ones we have in King County and throughout the UASI, that have the right equipment, have trained personnel, and have the practice to do the rescue component functions of a US&R Task Force…but, because they’re not organized as a team, and don’t include the other components (like canine search and rescue, or physicians, or embedded structural engineers), they can’t call themselves a US&R TF. New Jersey’s US&R TF (I was one of the original members), which is one of the 28 FEMA-sponsored teams, also maintains a state cache, and 3-deep members; it was (and also remains) a state-sponsored team…so, they could probably roster at least another team, fully equipped, if not two. Florida has, I think, 6 Type 3 locally-sponsored US&R TFs. There’s an alliance of state-sponsored teams (or non-FEMA teams); check it out here: SUSAR- State Urban Search and Rescue Alliance. Plus, there are many other SAR resources that could be used to supplement the US&R resources that come to help; King County SAR Association includes search dogs that are trained for this type of work."
Having served on the Executive Board for Washington Task Force 1 (WA-TF1) in the past, I can say that Brendan is right about there being more equipment and team members existing. For instance, back in the day there was a squabble about US&R equipment and where it was being stored. Seattle Fire Department was able to get their City Council to fund a totally separate and additional set of US&R equipment that was/is under their direct control and not connected to WA-TF1.
Having additional “non-official” teams around the nation can be helpful indeed. The challenge will be deploying them to another part of the nation impacted by an earthquake. FEMA can draw on U.S. military transport to move their teams on very short notice. These other local teams, while being a resource where they are located, and perhaps even regionally, won’t have the same priority and likely are not organized for that type of out-of-state deployment. FEMA teams have their equipment and supplies all warehoused and have semi-trucks and other vehicles dedicated for their movement as a team.
FYI, the Virginia team, for instance, is designated as the “out of nation” internationally deployable team, and one additional team (if I remember right) was deployed to Turkey from the list of authorized FEMA teams. I think it took them three days to get on scene and begin search operations. Again, the challenge of logistics and what I call the time-space continuum.
Having extra team members available is also desirable, since not everyone is available when “the bell rings.” Another critical element in all of the above is liability coverage for the teams and team members who deploy. The best option for having these teams move out of state and perform search and rescue would be to move under the auspices of the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) that allows for state-to-state mutual aid and where there are defined procedures for requesting such resources and the agreement provides the liability coverage should things “go amiss.” This is very dangerous work that the teams do, and thus the structural engineers who are in many respects the “safety piece of the pie” for what can be done when working a pile.
Lastly, I’d add there are some great technologies being developed, in the way of miniature “insect-like” mini robots/drones that could go into a pile to find trapped people. If we are not there already, they are just around the corner.
Thanks Brendan for highlighting more capabilities that we have nationally. I would add, however, that I think they said there are 200 collapsed buildings in Turkey alone.
