Miami-Dade County’s elite disaster response team is heading to Venezuela to assist in the wake of two devastating earthquakes that struck the South American country on Wednesday.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue announced Friday that its Urban Search and Rescue Florida Task Force One was activated by the U.S. State Department. The 80-person Type I Task Force, which includes six specialized canine teams, left from Homestead on Friday night.
The search and rescue team is equipped to handle complex disaster scenarios. The deployment roster features a comprehensive mix of rescue specialists, hazardous materials experts, tactical communications personnel, and advanced medical teams, including doctors.
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The team's primary objectives in Venezuela include conducting physical search and rescue operations within collapsed and damaged structures, stabilizing compromised buildings, and assessing overall damage to coordinate relief distribution. They will also provide critical on-site emergency medical care to both trapped victims and task force members, use state-of-the-art satellite systems to maintain communication lines in heavily affected zones.
It is among the most seasoned disaster response units in the world. Locally, the team was heavily deployed during the 2021 Surfside building collapse. Internationally and nationally, their resume includes responses to other catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti, Turkey, and Colombia.
Speaking at Friday's news conference, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava praised the unit for their expertise in search and rescue.
" I can only tell you that my heart is overflowing with pride that we have such an amazing group of men and women, and some canines, who know absolutely what to do,{ she said. "They are the ones you wanna call in the case of a disaster like this. I've seen them in action at Surfside. They've been all over the world."
The search and rescue team from Miami-Dade is among three that State Departments tapped to send to Venezuela. The others were from Fairfax County, Virginia and Los Angeles County, California.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "we have a whole-of-government response. It’ll be big; it’ll be fast; and it’ll be effective" in responding to assistance to Venezuela and its people.
