Hurricanes Helene and Milton destroyed entire communities, caused billions of dollars in damage, and claimed more than 100 lives. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) came under much scrutiny for its handling of the response to Hurricane Helene specifically, fueled in part by increased political discourse and inaccurate media reports. I won’t seek to relitigate what may have gone wrong or to assign blame here; however, it is vital that first responders have a clear understanding of how federal response efforts operate as well as the capabilities of an urban search and rescue (USAR) task force team. After all, such storms will continue to ravage the country, natural disasters will continue to strike, and there will always be an enemy to our country who wishes nothing more than to cause death and destruction to our way of life through terror. And standing ready to respond to any crisis are the men and women who serve as part of our nation’s USAR teams.
America’s Swiss Army knife
Most firefighters are familiar with the concept of special operations teams, and many firefighters are not a part of such a team. It is impractical to expect that every firefighter also be a skilled rope expert or a confined space technician with significant structural collapse background. It is also impractical for every fire department to have a dedicated hazmat response team. Therefore, most localities will have some type of regional capability to respond to incidents that are beyond the capabilities of local responders. A USAR task force works in much of the same way. Some teams are local or regional, some cover an entire state (known as a SUSAR team), and then there are federal USAR teams.
There are 28 federal USAR teams scattered across the United States, and there are always teams ready to respond to a disaster – earthquakes, tornado outbreaks, wildfires, hurricanes, building collapses and terrorist attacks. The country is divided into three regions – east, central and west – with 10 teams in the east division and nine teams located in the central and west divisions. The teams are made up of firefighters, paramedics, doctors, engineers, canine handlers and communication specialists. The members are not full-time employees of FEMA; they are employed by their local fire department, hospital or civilian occupation, and choose to serve as part of the National Response Framework.
USAR team capabilities
One task force leader summed up team capabilities like this: “We do the basics at an exceptionally high level, in austere conditions, with limited equipment and manpower.”
When referencing “basics,” I mean the fundamentals of a technical rescue team – rope rescue, confined space rescue, vehicle/machinery rescue, structural collapse rescue, trench rescue, wide area search and rescue, water rescue and disaster medicine. Each USAR team has an equipment cache in order to execute the variety of missions they may be expected to perform. In this way, a FEMA USAR team is an ultra-flexible and highly trained arm of the federal government that is able to save lives and provide life-saving care when resources are stretched thin.
A typical USAR task force can range from 45-84 deployed members to cover the variety of disciplines and threats. The bulk of the task force is the rescue team, which is organized into two to four squads and led by a rescue team manager. Their job is exactly what it sounds like – to rescue. Members of the rescue team are firefighters in their typical job, but on a deployment, their training and skills are used to gain access to trapped victims. These members have undergone hundreds of hours of training in rescue to become certified rescue technicians. Many are also swiftwater rescue technicians who can conduct water rescues in tumultuous flood environments.
Other teams within the task force include the search team, hazmat team, medical team, logistics team, communications team and planning team. Each team discipline serves the overall task force.
- The planning team uses maps and data to plan operations in careful coordination with the local emergency planners and responders.
- The communications team ensures that the team has appropriate radio and satellite communication if necessary.
- The medical team – led by trauma physicians and paramedics – stand ready to provide medical support to victims and team members alike.
- The search team uses specialized equipment as well as dogs and canine handlers to identify victim locations for the rescue team.
- The hazmat team identifies threats and contamination left behind in the wake of storms and to ensure the safety of the public and responders when working in disaster environments.
- The logistics team serves as the backbone of the task force, supplying the team with food and water, and making repairs to equipment or vehicles.
USAR deployment
It is important to note that a FEMA task force cannot just show up to your neighborhood. In the event of a major disaster, the task force is activated, and members are sworn in as government employees and sponsored by their local fire departments and participating agencies. From there, task forces from all over the country are mobilized and moved into pre-positioned areas in order to facilitate a quick response to the projected impact zone. For instance, within two hours of landfall of Hurricane Helene, members of USAR task forces were on the ground and working to search and rescue those in need.
Other resources are also mobilized and staged in adjacent areas for response to other impacted areas if necessary. In the response to the latest storms, task forces were placed in Georgia and South Carolina for response into the nearby other states such as North Carolina and Tennessee. As a storm intensifies, more task forces may be activated and mobilized. Naturally, this process takes time, as the entire equipment cache and task force must travel to their staging areas. This is coordinated by a command element through FEMA known as an incident support team (IST), which works with emergency planners to coordinate the movement of resources.
Simultaneously, local emergency leaders and the IST begin dividing the incident areas much like how an incident commander will divide a building at a structure fire. Divisions are made, but instead of being individual floors of a building, they are entire regions of a state with multiple counties and communities.
As the disaster strikes, local resources begin handling emergencies. Regional assets such as county technical rescue teams also start operating, and once the scale exceeds the capabilities of local responders, additional assets are requested.
Requests for resources are made by local government leaders and sent through the process to receive the necessary help. These requests often end up at state emergency operations centers (EOCs) where coordinators can keep track of the numerous resources, including power companies, water and sewer, fire and EMS, law enforcement, health services and other emergency support functions. If necessary, the state can request federal help – and this is how a FEMA USAR task force gets into action. From there, the state assigns the task force to a division, then to a county or community for work.
In essence, the task force works as a part of the overall incident command process, taking and receiving orders from their division supervisor, just as an engine company may receive orders from a battalion chief at a fire. The only difference to the operation is that the task force possesses a lot of capabilities beyond that of local resources. Additionally, the task force brings its own shelters, food, power and water so as not to impact or burden the already impacted community. A task force is self-sufficient for up to 14 days, allowing local responders to return to a state of normalcy – or whatever the new state of normalcy looks like – continuing to respond to more “routine” fire and EMS calls.
Final thoughts
FEMA task force members are highly skilled at handling basic rescue skills and beyond, all while operating in austere conditions with limited equipment and staffing. But they are also regular first responders who dedicate their lives with training and preparation in order to respond to any crisis at any time – day or night. These men and women leave their families behind for weeks at a time in order to help their fellow Americans. In my experience, they are simply the best of the best that our fire service has to offer. They stand ready to respond to the next disaster, and our communities can rest comfortably knowing that there are those people who are willing, ready and able to put it all on the line for others.
