SALINA — A tornado had demolished a small town 10 miles southeast of Salina, Kan. Hundreds of people were missing; trapped in vehicles, buildings, and piles of rubble, thrown into trees and onto surrounding structures. Hazardous material was leaking from a building in the center of town.

The sounds of saws tearing through concrete and metal filled the air as search and rescue teams from around the state came together to begin the process of locating and saving their friends, neighbors, and total strangers – working as a team alongside a firefighter they had never met from a squad 200 miles from their own station.

A tornado had destroyed a town in this training scenario. More photos at http://on.fb.me/H0Kv4l.

Men protected by HazMat suits worked on the best strategy to determine the location and chemical makeup of the threat they had to neutralize. Another team conducted a wide-area search to look for victims that may have been carried into the nearby countryside, the weight of the mud caking their boots making each step of their 6-mile trek a little more difficult than the one before. The K-9 unit helped with the search, notifying their handlers when they caught a scent.

Meanwhile, an unmanned aircraft system soared overhead, providing valuable real-time data to incident commanders. Continue reading →