Urban Search and Rescue Pennsylvania Task Force or PA-TF1 is a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force

FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Force

thumb|Members of FEMA US&R Task Force at [[World Trade Center]] after the 9/11 attacks.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...

 based in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 and is sponsored by the Commonwealth.

Participating Agencies

Pennsylvania Task Force One, PA-TF-1, serves as one of FEMA’s 28 Urban Search and Rescue Teams. The Sponsoring Agency for Pennsylvania based Urban Search and Rescue Team is the Harrisburg, Pa Bureau of Fire, through a Memorandum of Agreement with the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. The 200 plus member team included many agencies, with personnel primarily being from the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire, the Philadelphia Fire Department

Philadelphia Fire Department

The Philadelphia Fire Department provides firefighting and Emergency Medical Services within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....

 and the Baltimore County Fire Department.

Capabilities

Serving as the Pennsylvania State Capital, the City of Harrisburg is centrally located in Pennsylvania and is easily accessible to Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre areas via Interstates 76, 80 and 81. The Pennsylvania Emenrgency Management Agency is the Sponsoring Agency for the Task Force, but day to day administration and management is done by the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire, through MOA. The Task Force operates from a 20000 sq ft (1,858.1 m²) Special Operations Center located in Harrisburg, PA. All management and support functions such as training, logistics and maintenance are conducted from this facility. The Task Force maintains a FTE staff of a Program Manager, Financial Manager, Training Manager and Logistics Manager. In addition, the PEMA has a full-time SAR Coordinator assigned as the Program Liaison. The Special Operations Center, and administration andmanagement organizational structure support both the Federally deployable PA-TF1, as well as the in-state US&R response system..

Deployments

PA-TF-1 has been deployed to numerous incidents of national significance. The Task Forces first federal deployment was to North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 in 1999 for Hurricane Floyd

Hurricane Floyd

Hurricane Floyd was the sixth named storm, fourth hurricane, and third major hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. Floyd triggered the third largest evacuation in US history when 2.6 million coastal residents of five states were ordered from their homes as it approached...

. During this deployment, PA-TF1 gained distinction for several swift water rescues. PA-TF1 was deployed to the 2001 World Trade Center Attacks, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina/Rita event, and the 2008 Hurricane Ike/Gustav storm. PA-TF1 has also been deployed for National Special Security Events. Members from PA-TF1 also participate on the management teams established through FEMA to support the US&R system. These teams, referred to as Incident Support Teams (IST), provide the overhead coordination and support when there are multiple Task Forces operating within the same theatre of operations. Since the inception of the National US&R Response System, these personnel have responded to the majority of federally declared disasters where ESF-9 was activated for US&R.

Pennsylvania US&R Response System

In 2002, then Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker proposed the formation of an in-state US&R Response System. This was a result of recommendations from the post 9-11 Governor's Task Force on Homeland Security. On September 11, 2001, Pennsylvania Task Force One, PA-TF-1, was immediately deployed to New York City. Subsequently, a terrorist aircraft possibly bound for Washington DC crashed in Shanksville, PA. Concerned that the aircraft could have crashed into one of many cities such as Johnstown, Harrisburg, or York, while en route to its intended target, the Governor's Task Force recommended creation of a US&R capability dedicated for in-state use. This search and rescue team was envisioned to perform the same search and rescue capabilities as a FEMA Type I US&R Task Force, but only be deployable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There was also a desire to reduce the activation and deployment time for the in-state team, and a decentralized system was developed. Today, there are seven (2) regional US&R elements and one headquarters element within Pennsylvania. These elements can be activated at either the local level, or at the state level, and are primarily operational in nature. Large scale incident management and support to the regional elements is provided through the headquarters element. The Pennsylvania US&R Response System is managed jointly by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire through MOA. Since its inception, this system has responded to many localized collapse events, as well as state diesasters, such as the 2006 northeast PA floods and security events such as the Gubinatorial Inauguration and prominent sporting events..