SAN ANTONIO – In the worst disasters, the most highly trained responders are sent in to help. About 40 people from San Antonio are on one of those FEMA teams, the Texas Task Force 1.
The team responds to hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, floods and more.
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"You've got the medical side of it, the water side of it, you've got the search and rescue side of it as far as wide area search," San Antonio Fire Battalion Chief Walter Yates said.
Yates is on the task force and said the basic component is learning structural collapse.
"Actually being able to look at a building and tell what kind of structural condition it's in," he said.
He pointed to the 7.1 magnitude earthquake that crumbled parts of Mexico, trapping people in the rubble.
"They're trying to reach a 16-year-old girl and she's behind a beam. One of the structural beams that went across the floor that was above her, so they're going to tunnel through that. That could be an hour-long process. It could be eight-hour, 10-hour. It could be tomorrow. As they breach through this, they’re shoring it up around them so it doesn’t collapse on them," Yates explained.
There are some international signals so crews from different countries can work together. One of those is with whistles. Once means go, and three times means stop.
"If anybody holds up a hand, that’s an all stop. Everybody gets quiet," Yates said.
Being a part of FEMA's team means using some high-tech equipment.
"We have Delsar equipment, which is listening devices. We can put six microphones around a pile and they will pick up the smallest sound, somebody breathing," Yates said.
They have tiny search cams fit into tiny spaces and become their eyes.
"We can drill, like, a 2-inch hole and put the camera through, and that cam can look around while you’re sitting at your station, looking to see if there’s a void space somebody could be alive in. But one of our biggest tools is our K-9s. Each team runs with six to eight dogs," Yates said.
The Texas Task Force 1 has crews in Puerto Rico right now, but they're not yet in Mexico City. Yates believes soon their team will be sent to Mexico since there is so much destruction. There are two FEMA teams there now, one from California and one from Fairfax, Virginia.
"With two FEMA teams down there right now, I don’t think that’s enough. There’s too much going on. There are still people to be saved. There will be people six and seven and eight days out that are saved," he said.
Yates thinks people could be stranded for at least six more days in the rubble if more help isn't sent.
