L.A. earthquake aid staging for Haiti

Devastation is expected to be widespread in the largest modern quake in Haiti's history, preliminarily a shallow 7.0 earthquake. The Los Angeles County Fire Department's urban search and rescue team is poised to head for Haiti. The team, known in FEMA parlance as California Task Force 2, is staging at the Urban Search and Rescue facility on Osborne Street in Pacoima. Quick background on the 70-member team:

California Task Force 2 (CA-TF2) is a specially-trained and equipped Urban Search and Rescue Task Force consisting of Los Angeles County Fire Department firefighters and paramedics rescue specialists, emergency room physicians, structural engineers, heavy equipment specialists, canine search dogs and handlers, hazardous materials technicians, communications specialists, and logistics specialists. This unique technical rescue team responds with 55,000 pounds of prepackaged search and rescue tools and medical equipment to conduct around-the-clock search and rescue operations at domestic and international disasters, both natural and man-made.

The team was deployed in 2005 on tsunami duty in Sri Lanka and the aftermath to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the Gulf region of the U.S.

Photo: CNN.com