TEEX and Disaster City® provide courses so that participants have the valuable knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to successfully perform urban and wilderness search operations at various types of incidents, including a structural collapse, natural disaster, or chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE) incident.

Each course is designed by module and includes terminal and enabling objectives for participants to accomplish. TEEX courses are designed around current revisions to the National Response Framework and National Incident Management Systems (NIMS). All TEEX courses are fully compliant with all NIMS principles and the Incident Command System (ICS).

TEEX courses are specifically designed to meet an agency’s mission to accomplish specific requirements on the Target Capabilities List (TCL) and the Universal Task List (UTL), as well as meeting requirements of the appropriate National Planning Scenarios and National Preparedness Goal priorities.

US&R Search Program Courses

• Disaster Technical Search Specialist – This 40-hour (5 day) course is designed for personnel who would perform the technical search function on a US&R strike team or task force at incident scenes. This course is based on the FEMA Technical Search Specialist curriculum with the addition of advanced search techniques and scenarios.
  
  
• Disaster Canine Search Specialist – This 50-hour (5 day) course is designed for personnel who would work with their canine as a search team on a US&R strike team or task force at incident scenes. This course is based on the FEMA Canine Search Specialist curriculum with the addition of advanced search techniques and scenarios.
  
  
• Disaster Canine Workshop – These 8-hour (1 day) courses are offered throughout the year in Disaster City as a training venue for canine search teams to practice various skills and scenarios. Each workshop is unique and offers new information on search theory, practical exercises and positive feedback from the TEEX Canine Program instructors for team improvement.
  
  
• Canine Emergency Medical Care (this course is offered online at no cost to any eligible participant) – This 1-hour course is designed to introduce participants to the challenges and special considerations of treating canine patients which may become injured or fall ill while performing important functions during a WMD event. This course is managed by TEEX – National Emergency Response and Rescue Training Center (NERRTC).
  
  
• Wilderness Search and Rescue - Operations Level – This 16-hour (2 day) course is designed for responders and volunteers that will be conducting a search of a wilderness environment.
  
  
• Wide Area Search (this course is offered at no cost to any eligible jurisdiction) – This 24-hour (3 day) course is designed to provide participants practical search methods and skills when required to conduct a wide area search of an incident site, such as after a tornado, flooding, or a hurricane. This course is appropriate for any other responder requiring a solid base of knowledge of search skills and techniques.
  
  
  

Courses can be conducted at your jurisdiction or at Disaster City®, located in College Station, Texas. Disaster City® is a 52-acre urban search and rescue training facility and delivers the full array of skills and techniques needed by today’s US&R teams and emergency responders.

TEEX’s US&R training features instructors who have responded to some of the largest disasters on record, including the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, the space shuttle Columbia incident and Hurricane Katrina.

TEEX is the sponsoring agency for Texas Task Force 1, one of 28 national urban search and rescue teams under FEMA and is Texas’ only Type 1 statewide team under direction of the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Texas Task Force 1 also includes one of the country’s most extensive water rescue programs.