California Task Force 2 Performs Earthquake Response Exercise

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There are twenty-eight FEMA Urban Search and Rescue (US&R)  Task Forces across the United States, eight of which are in California.  With 210 members, California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2) from Los Angeles County is one of the larger ones.  Recently, they performed a full scale earthquake response drill in Castaic, California, and FDNNTV.com was on-hand to witness the training event.

Describing the exercise, which 70 of the members participated in, CA-TF2 Battalion Chief John Lenihan explains, "We have concrete buildings that have collapsed, some of them pancaked and we've been tasked with doing the initial search and recon of the area, finding victims and rescuing them."

California Task Force 2 Battalion Chief Terry De Journett further explains that the team members are required to identify the locations of victims, determine the best entry point and perform breeching and breaking, as they cut through several inches of concrete to rescue the victims.  He says that in this exercise team members must perform all search, rescue, medical, communications and hazmat duties associated with this type of emergency in order to test their tools and ensure that CA-TF2's crews know how to use them properly.

California Task Force 2 also has a canine component to its team, consisting of four dogs and four handlers.  It is one of only two teams in the United States that is deployable internationally, with the second team being Virginia Task Force 1, sponsored by the Fairfax County Virginia Fire and Rescue Department.

Battalion Chief Lenihan explains, "We've gone through the training and the contracting process that USAID employs for international aide.  Like any contractor we have to certify as qualified to do it.  We have to demonstrate our abilities and our capability to be ready to go."

Once called for an international deployment, members must be ready to leave by aircraft within six hours.  According to Battalion Chief Journett, the team prefers to travel by C-17, although they do use C-5's depending on the military's aircraft availability.  For a full international deployment, Lenihan says they would use 72 crew members and have the option of using additional canine search and rescue teams.  Less CA-TF2 drivers are usually sent for these missions because drivers local to the area of deployment are used, according to Journett, who also says that most of these missions are due to earthquakes.

Although portions of the team have been sent to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Sumatra and China, a full team deployment has not occurred.  Lenihan says that they were almost deployed to Iran, however, diplomatic and aircraft issues prevented the mission from taking place.

California Task Force 2 has grown significantly since its inception in 1993, when FEMA donated $125,000 to establish the group.  Battalion Chief Journett says, "Now we have approximately a 210 person team.  The annual budget is just over $1 million for the task force."

All team members do this job on a volunteer basis and have undergone extensive training.  They can be deployed without warning and can be home for extensive periods of time.

For a map of FEMA US&R team locations across the United States, click here.


Author:Barbara Brooks - FDNNTV.com