United States Homeland Emergency Response Organization
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US-HERO is a volunteer organization providing qualified search and rescue and disaster relief services to local, state and federal agencies. The headquarters of the organization is in Austin, Texas.
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[edit] Motto
“Americans Volunteering, So That Others May Live”
[edit] About
All US-HERO units have three main missions. These are:
- Search & Rescue of lost or missing persons
- Disaster Response/Relief
- Community Services, such as hazard mitigation, disaster preparedness training, etc.
US-HERO units train other organizations, both volunteer groups and professional organizations. As US-HERO is integrated into emergency response via the National Incident Management System, (NIMS), the ability to work with other agencies is unsurpassed in the volunteer emergency response field.
US-HERO started out as SAR-Team 8, which is now the name of the Austin, Texas unit of US-HERO. US-HERO is not a military auxiliary. Those wanting a more paramilitary type of organization are directed to the Civil Air Patrol or Coast Guard Auxiliary. US-HERO's organizational culture is more akin to a volunteer fire department.
[edit] Methods and organization
US-HERO is built around three central concepts. The first is that volunteer organizations work best when they are bottom to top in organizational structure. The second is that volunteer emergency responders should be qualified by professional standards. The third concept is "Service Before Self". A local unit must agree to three things to be a part of US-HERO and benefits of membership. These are:
- Agree to the US-HERO uniform standards
- Abide by the training and operational standards
- Operate within US-HERO's constitution and bylaws
[edit] Units
US-HERO units, generally known as "SAR teams" are local, volunteer groups. Typically there is one team per county, but exceptions are made for either highly populated areas or extremely low populated areas. A unit chooses various specializations that the team will be focused on, but all teams are required to be Wilderness SAR capable as a base line. Specializations include capabilities such as underwater, aviation, canine, equestrian, high-angle rope, cave and other rescue specializations.
Areas without a unit can request a US-HERO unit be established. A minimum of five persons are required to start a unit or team and they are usually sponsored by a local sheriff's department, county emergency management, church, community club or other like agency.
US-HERO is a membership based organization. There are two general areas that members can choose to work in, these are:
- Emergency rescue technicians - (these are members that actually do direct rescue and emergency response)
- Support staff - (these are members that deal with administration, planning and other indirect rescue/response roles)
[edit] Youth program
US-HERO units may choose to operate a youth or cadet program. These are Fire - Rescue Explorer Posts that are chartered with the Learning for Life program of the Boy Scouts of America. An Explorer Post serves youth from 14 - 21 years old and must accept both males and females.
[edit] Services
US-HERO's services include, but are not limited to:
- Wilderness search and rescue
- Light urban search and rescue
- Aviation SAR and damage assessment (aircraft)
- Light collapsed structure search and rescue
- Dive rescue and recovery
- Water rescue
- Cadaver search
- Evidence search
- Disaster assessment
- Educational displays at special events
- Educational classes (FEMA Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), First Aid, CPR, FEMA emergency response to disasters, survival in the wilderness, search and rescue and more!)
- Community Emergency Response Teams, which may be placed on standby or activated for storms, floods, disasters, etc. in a jurisdiction, utilizing its personnel that are trained FEMA Community Emergency Response Teams and weather spotters by the National Weather Service
[edit] Memorable actions
US-HERO units and members have responded to situations by:
- Staffing evacuee shelters in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
- Deploying teams into East Texas and Louisiana to conduct search and rescue operations after the above mentioned hurricanes.
- Responding to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in recovery operations.
- Responding to a national disaster flood in Comal County, Texas.
