They’re the members of Urban Search and Rescue Florida Task Force-1, a group of search and rescue experts that operates under FEMA, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When they’re not being dispatched to countries in crisis, many of them work for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue as local firefighters.
The team is used to crises like this one. Though they’re based in Miami-Dade County, team members are dispatched across the US and around the world to tackle disasters of all kinds. This time, though, the crisis was on their home turf. They’re the members of Urban Search and Rescue Florida Task Force-1, a group of search and rescue experts that operates under FEMA, or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. When they’re not being dispatched to countries in crisis, many of them work for Miami-Dade Fire Rescue as local firefighters. The task force, also known as Florida Task Force-1 or FL-TF1, has responded to some of the most notable disasters in recent history. Members were dispatched to New York after the 9/11 attacks and to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. They’ve been on the ground in Haiti, rescuing victims of the 2010 earthquake, and in Rwanda, helping coordinate international rescue teams amid genocidal warfare in 1994. Only once before have they responded in their own community, when Hurricane Andrew lashed South Florida in 1992. Responding to the Surfside building collapse is particularly challenging — aside from the dangers of heavy debris constantly shifting, the site is in their home county, and the victims may have been people they knew. Now, instead of being the team to support groups leading the rescue and recovery, Florida Task Force-1 is leading that work themselves. There are few teams better equipped for it, said Curt Sommerhoff, former director of Miami-Dade County’s Department of Emergency Management. „You never want, obviously, an event like this to happen in your backyard,“ he told CNN. „But if it’s going to happen in your backyard, to have the resources of a Florida Task Force-1… that’s huge.“ They have experience in crises of all kinds Members of FL-TF1 have seen it all: earthquakes, terrorist attacks, plane crashes, among others. Their breadth of expertise is what makes them so skilled and dependable in a disaster, said Carlos Castillo, a former FEMA official and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue veteran who helped develop Florida Task Force-1. Florida Task Force-1 is one of 28 federal search and rescue task forces overseen by FEMA, and its capabilities extend beyond carefully removing rubble.
