New State Law for Technical Rescue Teams

[dougeng41 1]

On Wednesday Gov. Spitzer signed into law a new section of Executive Law. Section 156-g Formally creates NY-TF2 in statute and gives power to OFPC to coordinate it's activities. This new section also allows OFPC to create additional task force teams across the state along with technical support teams. It also gives power to OFPC to provide an accreditation system to evaluate exisiting and future capabilities in regions and localities. OFPC will be creating rules and regulation over the next few months. The new law took effect immediately.

Executive_Law_156g.pdf

[Guest]

I wonder if they are going to change the SARTECH 1 and 2 exam criteria

[Guest partyrock]

Its about time NY came up with another team. Ca all ready has 8, Fl has 2....this is a welcomed addition.

[dougeng41 1]

One thing to keep in mind about these teams compared to NY-TF1 is that they are IN-STATE teams. They will follow the FEMA Styling but are for in state incidents. They are not meant to go out of state like TF1.

[Guest partyrock]

yes there are teams in state, but they do not have all of the capabilities or staffing of the FEMA task forces. When sh!t happens you want the best.

[Monty 35]

yes there are teams in state, but they do not have all of the capabilities or staffing of the FEMA task forces. When sh!t happens you want the best.

I doubt anyone disagrees with that thinking. However, according to the FEMA web site will deploy the 3 closest USAR teams within 6 hours of notification. Around here I guess that is NY-TF1, MA-TF1 and PA-TF1. So it could be that you are working without all the available FEMA resources for some time. I think it's better to have qualified teams than no teams, even if regional or state. I believe both NJ-TF1 and NY-TF2 both performed admirably at the WTC.

[helicopper 1,050]

I doubt anyone disagrees with that thinking. However, according to the FEMA web site will deploy the 3 closest USAR teams within 6 hours of notification. Around here I guess that is NY-TF1, MA-TF1 and PA-TF1. So it could be that you are working without all the available FEMA resources for some time. I think it's better to have qualified teams than no teams, even if regional or state. I believe both NJ-TF1 and NY-TF2 both performed admirably at the WTC.

If the disaster is local to us, FEMA will most likely not use the NY team and if Mass is involved, their team most likely would not be requested either. It's important to remember that for the most part, all FEMA/DHS/NDMS/etc. assets are comprised of local resources. They don't want to tax local resources by drawing down their specialized talent to staff a federal response when they can be staffing local rescue teams, etc. This has been the mindset of NDMS when deploying DMAT's for hurricanes for years.

Hurricane to hit FL = NY, MA, TX teams are deployed to FL. Not the FL teams.

As for federalizing other teams in NYS, who cares? The State team out of the Albany area has been a great resource and continues to be available. Now with this legislation, maybe we'll see a few more pop up in NY. The nice thing about state teams is they're going to be faster than any federal response, too!

[helicopper 1,050]

I doubt anyone disagrees with that thinking. However, according to the FEMA web site will deploy the 3 closest USAR teams within 6 hours of notification. Around here I guess that is NY-TF1, MA-TF1 and PA-TF1. So it could be that you are working without all the available FEMA resources for some time. I think it's better to have qualified teams than no teams, even if regional or state. I believe both NJ-TF1 and NY-TF2 both performed admirably at the WTC.

If the disaster is local to us, FEMA will most likely not use the NY team and if Mass is involved, their team most likely would not be requested either. It's important to remember that for the most part, all FEMA/DHS/NDMS/etc. assets are comprised of local resources. They don't want to tax local resources by drawing down their specialized talent to staff a federal response when they can be staffing local rescue teams, etc. This has been the mindset of NDMS when deploying DMAT's for hurricanes for years.

Hurricane to hit FL = NY, MA, TX teams are deployed to FL. Not the FL teams.

As for federalizing other teams in NYS, who cares? The State team out of the Albany area has been a great resource and continues to be available. Now with this legislation, maybe we'll see a few more pop up in NY. The nice thing about state teams is they're going to be faster than any federal response, too!