A Tour of FEMA’s Fleet
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We all saw the images of FEMA’s fleet of specialized trucks traveling along in a miles-long caravan during Hurricane Katrina. But for those of you who are interested in what exactly each truck was, here’s a tour of FEMA’s Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS).
The MERS mission is to “provide mobile telecommunications, operations support, power generation, and life support required for the on-site management of disaster response activities.” The group falls under the Tactical Emergency Communications Branch of the Disaster Operations arm of FEMA. MERS provides communications options ranging from “fly-away packages” to tractor-trailers full of communications equipment.
The smallest vehicle option is the Incident Response Vehicle (IRV), which comes with a crew of 1-5 people and can support 10 more outside. The IRV is used as an incident command post for forward operations, with a videoconferencing room on the inside.
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