Search And Rescue
It is highly unlikely that the evacuation teams will be able to evacuate all of the people in the disaster area in time. This is where search and rescue comes in. Search and Rescue's responsibility will be to search for survivors and bring them to the evacuation site. Search and Rescue will also be responsible for collecting dead bodies and bringing them to a central location where they can be identified. Since search and rescue is a job that requires expertise and training we are recommending that the military be placed in charge of search and rescue operations for Peru . Since Micronesia has no army of its own, the standing agreement1 between the US and Micronesia should be used with FEMA and USAID heading search and rescue operations. These groups will have to be trained on proper search and rescue protocol.
FEMA already has an existing search and rescue protocol in place. Search and Rescue operations are divided into teams of 31. Each team is then divided into 4 Rescue Squads with 1 commander and 5 “rescue specialists”, as well as search dogs. These squads will have enough food and supplies to last them for at least 72 hours. On top of this they shall also be equipped with rescue equipments that are suitable for Urban Search and Rescue such as pneumatic and power tools; they shall also have the communications infrastructure necessary for carrying out search and rescue operations. Squads are also equipped with enough medical supplies to treat 10 critical cases, 15 moderate cases and 25 minor cases. The complete list of their supplies and a budget can be found on the FEMA website2. FEMA search and rescue teams must be able to deploy within six hours of being called3. We are recommending that search and rescue teams be modeled after this.
Search and Rescue (SAR) operations will begin as soon as all the subsequent tsunamis have subsided and the water has calmed down to a reasonable amount. The government agency managing relief effort will be responsible for giving the green light. They will be in communication with the international tsunami monitoring agency to determine when it is safe to begin operations. Depending on the time between detection of the tsunami and the estimated impact time of the tsunami, SAR teams may be sent ahead of time to designated “safe areas” near the tsunami affected zone. This will allow for quick response once the green light is given. The tsunami coordinating government agency will be in charge of determining whether it is safe to send teams ahead of time. In the event that rescue operations can begin before the SAR teams can arrive. Local volunteer groups can begin search and rescue operations. When the trained SAR teams arrive, as FEMA protocol dictates 2 , they will talk to the head of the local search and rescue operations.
Afterwards, they set up, plan, and begin SAR operations. The number of teams that will be deployed to an area depends on the size of the area. The government agency will determine how many teams will be deployed per area, depending on the number of available teams. For reference, eight teams were used during the 9/11 attacks in New York City , and four teams were used in the Pentagon 3 . The SAR teams will bring survivors to the evacuation site. They are also responsible for bringing dead bodies to a central location where they can be identified and taken care of. The SAR teams must also update the survivor database with the survivors they find. It is the government's role to decide when to stop SAR operations. This should occur when an area has been thoroughly searched and the chance that there are still survivors is zero.
1 Agreement to Amend Article X of the Federal Programs and Services Agreement Between the Government of the United States and the Government of the Federated States of Micronesia, United States-Micronesia, February 26, 2004, http://www.fm/jcn/docs/fpsaartxamend.doc, (November 1, 2005)
2 Federal Emergency Management Agency. Urban search and rescue: Commonly asked questions. Retrieved October 30, 2005 from http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=5454
3 Federal Emergency Management Agency. (2003). FEMA urban search and rescue task force 2003-2004 equipment cache list. Retrieved October 23, 2005 from http://www.fema.gov/pdf/usr/usr_equip_cache_list.pdf