FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force
A FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force is a team of individuals specializing in urban search and rescue, disaster recovery, and emergency triage and medicine. The teams are deployed to emergency and disaster sites within six hours of notification. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) created the Task Force concept to provide support for large scale disasters in the United States. FEMA provides financial, technical and training support for the Task Forces as well as creating and verifying the standards of Task Force personnel and equipment.
Members of FEMA US&R Task Force at World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks
Rescue dogs
A canine rescuer on assignment after the 2013 Colorado floods
FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force equipment in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina
Urban search and rescue is a type of technical rescue operation that involves the location, extrication, and initial medical stabilization of victims trapped in an urban area, namely structural collapse due to natural disasters, war, terrorism or accidents, mines and collapsed trenches.
Rescuers with a victim of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake
Rescue teams evacuating residents from flooded areas during Hurricane Katrina
One of the Canine rescuers on assignment after the 2013 Colorado floods. Search and rescue dogs can help their handlers be more effective at finding humans in crises.
USAR truck, First Company, Santiago de Chile FD
