What is the State Urban Search and Rescue Alliance? Here's How it Started and Where it’s Going

State Urban Search and Rescue (SUSAR) was the product of a group of dedicated patriarchs of the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) community. In 2005, a group representing 17 states and territories gathered to discuss the concerns and visions for USAR nationally with the goal to put a new process into motion. 

During this initial gathering, which was referred to as the “Summitt of State USAR Teams,” the plan started to take shape. Task Force Leader James Riley of New Jersey Task Force 1 (NJ-TF1) was voted in as the inaugural director/spokesperson of the newly formed group. 

One of the main reasons that SUSAR decided to formulate an organization was to fill the response void that occurs between the time that a man-made or natural disaster occurs and the time that it takes for the President of the United States to enact the Stafford Act, which in turn activates the FEMA/USAR response. Unlike the FEMA/USAR teams which need a presidential activation for deployment, the SUSAR teams only need activation through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC) which was established in 1996.

Recent report shows importance of local resources

In the recent final report from the FEMA Council Review, “The President’s Council to Assess the Federal Emergency Management Agency," which was published May 7, 2026, SUSAR and the FEMA/USAR “system” were included in the following areas:

• Expand and leverage successful partnerships: Rather than replacing successful programs, the future agency doubles down on those with a proven track record of effective federal-state-local partnership.
• National Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Program: This program, with its network of 28 task forces, has a decades-long history of successfully integrating federal, state, and local emergency response teams. The future agency enhances funding and expands capabilities for these task forces, ensuring they remain a cornerstone of specialized, on-the-ground support. Leverage this successful program as a model to expand the State Urban Search and Rescue (SUSAR) programs.

The collaborative relationship that has evolved between SUSAR and FEMA/USAR is one of the greatest outcomes from those who started this journey for us. 

During the initial growth and planning phases, the leadership of SUSAR realized the importance and value of having our partners from the FEMA/USAR side included in the process. Fred Endrikat of Pennsylvania Task Force 1 (PA-TF-1) was selected to serve as the direct contact with the 28 federal teams. Serving as the chairman of the Task Force Leaders Working Group for FEMA, his knowledge and commitment were a perfect match for this alliance. Endrikat later became the Branch Chief for FEMA USAR, during his time in that position he continued to foster the positive relationships between SUSAR and the FEMA/USAR system. 

As with any organization, SUSAR has taken several paths during its 21 years of existence. Some of their early work, which is still a part of our core objectives for SUSAR, included the development of:

• By-laws for the SUSAR Alliance - having a guidance document in place gave the new organization both purpose as well as structure to grow from. Having a defined structure from the start has kept the integrity of SUSAR in place since the beginning. There have been various modifications over the past 21 years, however the core principles of the By-Laws still guide us into the future.
• Promotion of “Resource Typing” - this process was very new and unfamiliar to many at the time. The advancement of knowledge in this area was a big part in the development of a standardized platform to evaluate and select the proper piece of the puzzle when the need arises.

Setting the national standard

Speaking a common language, having predetermined expectations and qualifications of both fellow USAR responders and of your own organization can be accomplished by using these standardized resource typing guides. 

An area where we still fall short is in our educational process with our elected officials. Many times, I hear one of these individuals miss-speaking during a public appearance. The better we are at educating this group the better they can be an advocate for our mission. If you are a leader of your organization or team, it is your responsibility to help inform and educate these elected officials who speak for you and control the funding lines which make your existence possible in many cases.

One of the most common statements I hear is they want to be a “FEMA Type 1 USAR Team" when in essence they are referring to a “NIMS Type 1 USAR Team." Though both are very similar they are not interchangeable. NIMS Typed assets specifically identify their capabilities. While a FEMA USAR Team is specific to the 28 FEMA USAR Teams within the system.

The Recognition of the importance of “Swiftwater Rescue Capabilities”: This aspect of USAR was for a long time an unrecognized component of the system. Still to this day, various funding lines for grants do not recognize Swiftwater as an allowable component for eligibility of funds.

If you talk with many of our USAR providers, they will echo the fact that a vast majority of their responses/deployments are associated with an incident which includes a Swiftwater response component. As we can see our work will never be done. There will always be a component of our USAR world that needs to be advocated for.

Training is another goal/objective that will never be completed. As an organization our primary purpose is to serve those we represent in the USAR community. The number one ask of us is to find a way to obtain needed position-specific training that will provide the skills required to guide our teams out in the field.

Many factors come into play when addressing this training need:

• cost of the programs at times has made it financially difficult to obtain the training:
• limited offering opportunities;
• course content not specific to a non-federal team’s operational programs.

Over the years, much time and effort have been put into place to help make this process more manageable. One of the biggest milestones was SUSAR and Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) coming together to work collectively promoting the opportunities and access to these highly sought out courses. This relationship continues to grow as both organizations are continually meeting and working together to move the process into the future.

Training format update

Currently, SUSAR’s Training Advisory Group is working on the development of an updated version of many of these position-specific courses. By bringing together subject matter experts from both the FEMA/USAR and SUSAR community the process is well underway.

The new versions will retain all the course knowledge needed for all USAR responders no matter what level of capability they represent, including department level, local/regional teams, technical rescue teams (TRTs), state teams, tribal teams, FEMA teams, plus and any others who provide USAR capabilities.

The new version will be in somewhat of a modular format. If the course is provided to one of the 28 FEMA/USAR teams, the original version will be used, which includes all the specific needs for their responders.

The new version of these courses will have the FEMA/USAR specific material removed and those student contact hours in each course are being replaced with course content which will directly assist the non-FEMA USAR organizations to prepare for the tasks they are assigned to. The primary goal of the project is to maintain the integrity of the courses while making them better suited to help develop the next generation of USAR leaders.

National Urban Search and Rescue Conference

The following updated courses will be offered at the 2026 National Urban Search and Rescue Conference, held in Orlando, FL, Nov. 11-19, 2026.

• USAR Planning Team / TIS Course – Nov. 12-15
• USAR Haz-Mat Specialist Course – Nov. 13-15
• USAR Tack Force Leader Course – Nov. 13-15
• USAR Safety Officers Couse – Nov. 13-15

 Additional USAR focused courses are being held prior to and after the NUSAR Conference, which is held on Nov. 16-18 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Orlando Sea World. The full course offering list can be found on the conference link on the SUSAR.org website.

After many years of moving the SUSAR Conference, the decision to anchor our event in one location was made in 2023 and it has resided there since. At that time the conference was transitioned to the current version, as the National Urban Search & Rescue Conference (NUSAR) which is facilitated by SUSAR.

This retooling was found to be very successful as it has grown from a modest venue of approximately 75 to 100 participants yearly to over 870 participants from 40 states and territories and 15 nations at the 2025 NUSAR Conference.

With training of our USAR responders as one of our primary objectives we are continually taking on that challenge. Since bringing the NUSAR Conferenced to Orlando, we have accomplished this over the past 3 years by providing an increasing number of requested courses to our participants, including:

• 2023 – 8 programs with 191 students trained
• 2024 – 10 programs with 246 students trained
• 2025 - 13 programs with 346 students trained.

Our mission never stops as the need for a well-trained USAR response capability becomes more in demand, we will continue to do our part to meet those goals and needs of our people.