Reply #2: my viewpoint [View All]

[OudeVanDagen]

FEMA was based on, and still closely follows the old national response plans established by the NCD or National Civil Defense ... so it will deploy USAR teams and other support and logistical efforts regionally ... 3 regions (East, Central, West) that for over 60 years are still called RED, WHITE, and BLUE.

USAR teams are selected and rejected by FEMA by an annual review process that considers among other criteria; manpower availability, level of training and number of responses. FEMA will only deploy up to 1/3 of a city's USAR to a disaster site so that 2/3 will be available for the lending city and for rotation of crews.

Every USAR team deployed by FEMA is accompanied by a IST or Incident Support Team. IST will among other things be the go-between to expedite actions and communications between the Incident Command at a disaster and the USAR teams and deal with other collateral agencies.

IST will normally arrive days before the USAR will participate in a drill or practice session. IST will very often be present in a city that is conducting disaster drills even though USAR isn't being deployed. IST will be the eyes and ears .... observers ... and will offer constructive criticism or take notice of procedures to better define their roles and function.

Collapse investigation follows a very similar protocol ...

It is my experience that dates and times are very often confused by responders to these incidents. Example: Some field notes taken show dates written month-day (9-11) some show day-month (11-9); both mean September 11, 2001 but were just written in ways that can be very confusing. I use military time, I was trained in Army Corps of Engineers; most crews used MT. I'll write 1915, others 7:15 pm.

There has been a great deal of confusion over dates and times in this incident. Common problem, especially when considering the amount of manpower deployed.