Emergency Preparedness

One of the mandated responsibilities of the Regional EMS Councils is to assist federal, state or local agencies in the provision of onsite mitigation, technical assistance, and situation assessment, coordination of functions or post-incident evaluations in the event of potential or actual disasters, mass casualty situations or other substantial threats to public health. As part of its fulfillment of these tasks, SAEMS actively participates with the South-Central Mountains Regional Task Force and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Task Force, as well as with the Emergency Management officials throughout the Region.

Southwestern Pennsylvania Task Force

https://swpa-region13.com

South Central Mountains Regional Task Force http://www.scmrtf.org/

SAEMS has responded and helped coordinate resources for many natural disasters including:

· Hurricane Katrina

· Hurricane Irene

· Tropical Storm Lee

· Tropical Storm Sandy

Strike Teams

The EMS Strike Teams are the responsibility of the Regional EMS Councils and fall under the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Bureau of EMS. The fundamental purpose of the EMS Strike Teams is to provide transportation of patients from one location to another in circumstances where local EMS agencies are overwhelmed and unable to accomplish this task without additional resources. EMS Strike Teams may only be activated for a “team” response by the Bureau of EMS, at which time all activities of the EMS Strike Team are coordinated locally by the Regional EMS Council. Upon activation, the specific mission of the EMS Strike Team is dictated by the Bureau of EMS and is coordinated with other appropriate local, regional, state and federal response agencies under a NIMS compliant response matrix.