DHS/FEMA has released a new version of Emergency Support Function (ESF) #9 – Search and Rescue Annex to the National Response Framework (NRF). The National Search and Rescue Committee (NSARC) undertook the rewrite on its own. This caught FEMA/DHS completely off-guard and it took them a over a year to figure out what to do – publish it.
This new version makes much more sense and fits in with the National SAR Plan. The biggest changes:
- Inland/Wilderness SAR is now called Land SAR.
- Aeronautical SAR has been dropped as a separate category of SAR. The three categories are now Structural Collapse SAR (US&R), Maritime/Coastal/Waterborne SAR and Land SAR.
- DOD/USAF/AFRCC was the primary agency for Aeronautical SAR. The Department of Interior (DOI)/National Park Service (NPS) was the primary agency for Inland/Wilderness SAR.
- The primary agencies for Land SAR are now DOD and DOI/NPS. One of the reasons for dropping USAF/AFRCC is that the Inland SAR Coordinator function was moved up a level from AFNORTH to NORTHCOM. AFRCC still handles the day-to-day SAR coordinator function.
- References were added listing federal statutes and policies which provide SAR guidance at the federal level.
- There is much more, and clearer, explanation given to how SAR at the federal level is activated under the NRF, ESF-9 and integrated with local SAR.
In addition to the rewrite of ESF-9, NSARC, under the leadership of DOI/NPS, has written a Land SAR Supplement to the National SAR Supplement to the International SAR (IAMSAR) Manual. This is still in review and the draft I was sent is over 250 pages long. The US Coast Guard has already written and published the US maritime supplement to the IAMSAR Manual.
Mike