The Work of a Task Force: Dismantling a Dying Building
BY MICHAEL G. BROWN
At 1500 hours on April 20, FEMA`s USAR Virginia Task Force-2 (VA TF-2) arrived at Tinker Air Force Base and received a situation briefing on the tarmac. In a nutshell, we were told the building was devastated almost beyond comprehension. There were still probably more than 100 victims trapped inside. The two initial teams at the site, Phoenix and Sacramento, had been working for about nine hours, involved mostly in search operations, shoring, and debris removal. We were advised that a 15-year-old girl had been removed alive the previous night. We were to set up our base of operations (BOO) and await further instructions from the command section.
If you are a current subscriber,login hereto access this content.
If you would like to become a subscriber, please visit ushere.
