Searching in Hope: FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue Teams

When Cathy Schiltz, a 39-year-old mother of three, watched the Oklahoma City bombing on her television in Columbia, Mo., she felt helpless and frustrated. "That's when I got the idea to get involved with a search and rescue operation," she says. "And my background as a veterinary technician inspired me to work with dogs."

Over the next few years, Schiltz became qualified as an emergency medical technician with her local fire department. She trained with her dog, Hawk, an Australian shepherd, and both were certified to join FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) Missouri team in October 1998.

When she watched the televised image of the World Trade Center collapsing in a tragic heap, Schiltz started packing and left Columbia to join the largest search and rescue operation in U.S. history.

Of the 28 US&R Task Forces FEMA oversees throughout the country, 20 were deployed to New York. By October 7, nearly 1,300 US&R members and 80 dogs had been deployed by FEMA in a $25 million mission.

"I knew I would be called to go," says Schiltz. "My husband called right after it happened and said he was taking the day off to be with the kids. I was on a plane by six o'clock that evening."

By the next night, she and Hawk (named for his resemblance to a red-tailed hawk) joined several other US&R teams at Ground Zero searching through the rubble.

"It was surreal, like Armageddon," says Schiltz.

For the next two weeks, she watched Hawk scuffle through the debris, hoping to hear his bark and see him lift his paw, the signal that meant he found someone alive. But it never happened. Instead, he lifted his paw in silence almost 50 times.

"Sometimes he would look up at me, as if to say, 'Sorry,'" says Schiltz.

Despite the enormity of her assigned task, Schiltz says she never had time to feel overwhelmed.

"Even when we weren't out on the rubble, we knew we could be called back at any moment so we had to hold it together," she says. "I would look at those firefighters' faces and know how much they wanted to find someone, and that would keep me going."

FEMA activated 25 of its 28 national Urban Search and Rescue task forces in response to the World Trade Center and Pentagon terrorist attacks -- the largest US&R deployment in U.S. history. These teams were deployed as part of the National US&R Response System, operating under FEMA authority.

US&R Teams Deployed to the World Trade Center
Arizona Task Force 1 (Phoenix, Arizona)
California Task Force 1 (Los Angeles City Fire Department)
California Task Force 3 (Menlo Park Fire Department)
California Task Force 4 (Oakland Fire Department)
California Task Force 6 (Riverside Fire Department)
California Task Force 7 (Sacramento Fire Department)
California Task Force 8 (San Diego Fire Department)
Colorado Task Force 1 (State of Colorado)
Florida Task Force 1 (Metro-Dade Fire Department)
Florida Task Force 2 (Miami Fire Department)
Indiana Task Force 1 (Marion County)
Massachussetts Task Force 1 (City of Beverly)
Missouri Task Force 1 (Boone County Fire Protection District)
Nebraska Task Force 1 (Lincoln Fire Department)
Nevada Task Force 1 (Clark County Fire Department)
Pennsylvania Task Force 1 (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania)
Ohio Task Force 1 (Miami Valley Urban Search & Rescue)
Texas Task Force 1 (State of Texas Urban Search & Rescue)
Utah Task Force 1 (Salt Lake Fire Department)
Washington Task Force 1 (Puget Sound Task Force)

US&R Teams Deployed to the Pentagon
Maryland Task Force 1 (Montgomery Fire Rescue)
New Mexico Task Force 1 (State of New Mexico)
Tennessee Task Force 1 (Memphis Fire Department)
Virginia Task Force 1 (Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department)
Virginia Task Force 2 (Virginia Beach Fire Department)