Running Toward Danger: Structural Specialists Serve State, Nation During Disasters

By Thomas Ehlers, Staff Writer

All photos in this story are provided by Andy Schrader, featuring US&R efforts after the Champlain Towers South collapse in 2021 in Surfside.

Rob Sullivan is Always Ready for a Call.

Sullivan’s work has brought him all over the country and even world, but most of the calls he’s received as Florida Task-Force 1’s structures specialist (StS) aren’t positive. They come after natural or man-made disasters, including earthquakes, hurricanes or building collapses, and he’s stayed ready to help rescuers’ efforts on the ground.

As a member of Urban Search and Rescue (US&R) task force, Sullivan earned a U.S. State Department USAID citation for his work during the 1999 İzmit-Kocaeli earthquake. As he’s watched the industry shift and change, he’s seen some things during his numerous deployments.

You go in there with a humble attitude because nature is going to humble you. Murphy’s Law is going to govern.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) established the National Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System in 1989, creating a framework for organizing the federal, state and local response teams that partner together during disasters as an integrated collective. FEMA can deploy systems to a disaster area to provide assistance in structural collapse rescue, and these groups can be pre-positioned when a major disaster threatens a community.

These response groups ensure the continuous operation of critical government and business functions vital to human health and safety, or economic security, and there are different levels of these teams. The Sunshine State holds some of the nation’s premiere task forces – US&R groups – and StSs.

A member of a multidisciplinary team, every StS plays an important role in assessing structural damages after deployment to a disaster area, identifying hazards and recommending specific mitigations to minimize risks and ensure safety.

Structures specialists are engineers with normal jobs who wait until disaster strikes for deployment, and these special engineers play an integral role in disaster response. These individuals might not garner attention, but their services are essential to safety and society.

A Rich History

Two early US&R teams – Miami-Dade FireRescue and a California crew – developed methodologies and best practices to improve the field.

Both crews traveled to Mexico City in 1985 when an 8.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the region, causing nearly $5 billion in damage. During their deployment, these teams managed to save 102 lives through their efforts, but they lost 105 rescuers and responders who entered these unstable structures. It led to an effort to develop a sense of order and methodology to rescue teams.

“They said, ‘Well we need to do something about this, we need to learn how to do this because it is beyond our firefighting capabilities,’” said Sullivan.“Over a period of time, they developed a special team.” they’ve garnered a host of other roles.

Today, Florida has eight US&R teams – two federal teams including Florida TF-1 and TF-2 along with six other state task forces, TF-3 through TF-8. These teams consist of firefighters with varying certifications, medical specialists, canine groups and other specialized individuals.

Events like Hurricane Andrew in 1992 allowed US&R teams and StSs to become change agents. After the quickmoving, high velocity storm brought down a number of structures, a committee consisting of StS engineers reevaluated the South Florida building code to address wind load failures and other issues, amendments that would merge into the state’s standard building code half a decade later.

An Expansive Role

Traditionally, both federal and state structures specialists have been used to shore structures to help US&R teams safely reach victims of disasters, but through the years, they’ve garnered a host of other roles.

When US&R teams are mobilized, they rely on StSs to determine if bridges are safe to cross, buildings are safe to enter or other structures are passable for reaching entrapped individuals. These decisions are made quickly, a distinct difference from decisions made by traditional engineers.

“That’s one of the more challenging things for a structural engineer to get used to,” said Andy Schrader, lead sTs engineer for the state of Florida’s US&R Task Forces and founder of Recon Response Engineering in St. Petersburg. “In our practice, we’re used to having days if not weeks to analyze a structure and make a decision. Disaster engineering is exactly the opposite – now we are forced to make decisions with incomplete, possibly incorrect information.”

Risk mitigation is the focal point of StS work. Firefighters and other medical personnel tend to work with pace, wanting to venture into structures from the onset, but structures specialists are there to give a quick evaluation of the worst possible scenarios – and provide guidance to avoid them. StSs know the other US&R group members will be going in whether they give input or not, so it’s up to them to give them the safest way possible.

“You’re not going to get it 100% right, but the best you can do is not get it 100% wrong,” said Jonathan Milton, Florida StS of TF-4 and president of Milton Engineering Consultants. “Really, that’s the framework that we are working with – we have to make decisions in a very short duration because you have a lot of people waiting on you to move forward. What it comes down to is the training.”

Structures specialists can complete two certificates, including a StS1 and StS2. Before earning an StS1 distinction, individuals must be a licensed professional engineer and be practicing structural engineering. The initial certification can be earned through a week-long training program. The StS2 is an advanced certification, reflecting an additional week of more elaborate training.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hosts these certification courses, and individuals can earn other distinctions, including Heavy Equipment & Rigging Specialist. A look at the job description of an StS can be daunting – nearly two dozen suggested or required training courses and a roles and responsibilities list just as long.

An StS’s day job is one way to practice these skills, as the typical tasks of an engineer can give ample experience. For Schrader, the best training comes in complex training situations with paramedics where an StS can test their common sense and critical thinking skills, including car crashes resulting in a building collapse or complicated vehicle accidents with entrapment.

You’re not going to get it 100% right, but the best you can do is not get it 100% wrong,

— JONATHAN MILTO N Florida StS of TF- 4

“A lot of times the biggest challenge is not so much the technical expertise but the mindset,” Schrader said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, we’re just normal structural engineers doing our day job, whereas the firefighters or rescue teams are 180-degrees the other way around. It’s not an easy place, mentally, for most engineers to get into.”

Another difficult part of the job is the mental and emotional strain that these high-stress and often scarring situations cause. With disasters, there are high probabilities of seeing the deceased, badly injured or other disturbing images.

“At the time, you have to compartmentalize,” Schrader said. “You have to just stow this stuff away, accepting that sometime in the future you will have to unpack and it won’t be fun. You may well need some form of mental health therapy to help you unpack later on what you are seeing and understand the significance of what you are seeing.

“I personally focus much more on what is the actual goal, what I am doing there, and I intentionally avoid thinking too hard about what is under this pile.”

Other dangers exist in emergency situations. Hurricanes bring flooding and downed power lines, leading to electrocution risk. Helicopters used in rescue operations can crash. Staying awake for dozens of hours to monitor structures can be taxing, both mentally and physically. But structures specialists can count on dealing with these factors every deployment.

“Doing this type of work takes a very specific person,” Milton said. “There are certain people that run toward danger, and there are certain people that run away from danger. We’re the ones that run to it.”

And this trio has made a sprint to some of the state and world’s worst disasters. Sullivan made a call to use a series of airbags instead of a crane during the 2018 Florida International University pedestrian bridge collapse. Schrader and Milton were deployed to Champlain Towers South after its 2021 collapse in Surfside, the third-biggest

More than a Group

Much like how the federal framework exists to share assets, the state of Florida’s US&R teams rely heavily on one another.

“The structured specialists in the state of Florida are a pretty close-knit group of individuals,” Milton said. “We share information; we bounce stuff off of each other; we rely on each other. I think that’s pretty important because when you get in certain situations, you might necessarily have the particular expertise and background to look at something. There are people within our organization that you could reach out to and figure out that information.”

In Shrader’s role, he coordinates structures specialists assets for state task forces 3 through 8, most recently sharing best practices and lessons learned from Hurricane Debby, the region’s latest natural disaster. Cell phone numbers and email addresses are the most important credentials for US&R groups, both to coordinate StS availability and assets when disasters strike.

As essential as structures specialists are to US&R groups, the actual number of these credentialed engineers is fewer than one could realize. Two of the state task forces don’t have structures specialists tied to their units, but this trio is seeking to change that.

On top of recruitment presentations, Milton spearheaded an effort to ensure liability coverage for StSs and US&R teams deployed during disasters. Florida statute 768.382 went into effect in July 2021, and it protects engineers, architects and structures specialists voluntarily participating in emergency response activities from being liable for any personal injury, wrongful death, property damage, or other economic loss. Editor's note: Read more about FS 768.382 in our Law & Ethics feature on page 8.

“We don’t want to react to an engineer getting sued because the decision he made wasn’t the best decision and there was a bad result of that,” Milton said of the statute, ironically signed a week after the Surfside collapse. “By getting the Florida legislature to acknowledge that and put it in place was a big win for engineers in the state of Florida.”

There are other challenges to recruitment. Structures specialists – and perhaps more importantly, their employers – must be ready to leave the office for up to 14 days of deployment, which can affect projects. Although these positions are paid, there are no inflated salaries. Despite these obstacles, these three engineers hope to find the newest young talent to answer one of a civilian’s hardest calls.

“There’s no great glory or pay attached to this job,” Schrader said. “You do this job because you care about serving the firefighters and personnel that you go there for and try your best to keep them alive.”

To learn more about working with a US&R task force near you, visit fema.gov/emergency-managers/ national-preparedness/frameworks/urban-searchrescue.