Types of Help You Can Receive Through Mutual Aid

Mutual aid provides access to a wide range of support during emergencies, tailored to the needs of the requesting jurisdiction. This assistance can include personnel such as firefighters, emergency medical teams, law enforcement officers, building inspectors, search and rescue crews, and public health professionals. It also covers equipment and specialized resources like generators, communication systems, debris removal machinery, and mobile medical units. Mutual aid helps communities quickly scale their response by bringing in qualified help from other areas—ensuring a faster, more coordinated recovery.

Through EMAC services can also be transfered from one state to another such as 911 calls or newborn blood testing. Learn more about EMAC.

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Animal Response

Animal resources can be deployed through mutual aid to support animal welfare and agriculture infrastructure during disasters, ranging from veterinarians and livestock specialists to Incident Management Teams (IMTs) that coordinate multi-agency response.

These resources may be used to assess damages to agriculture systems, restore dairy or poultry operations, provide emergency veterinary care, and coordinate with NGOs for animal sheltering and supply distribution.

Challenges may include license reciprocity (not an issue through EMAC), infrastructure damage, limited access to fuel or feed, and coordination across multiple agencies.

A strong example of a successful mission was the 2017 EMAC deployment of a North Carolina animal response incident management team to Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria. The team helped stabilize the critical dairy sector, drafted a $12 million USDA assistance grant, and collaborated with both local and federal partners to restore agricultural operations and improve animal welfare across the island.

Building Inspectors

Deploying building inspectors through mutual aid is critical after disasters to assess structural safety, support code enforcement, and guide rebuilding efforts. These professionals may face challenges such as differing local codes, limited access to damaged areas, and coordination with unfamiliar agencies. Through EMAC, license reciprocity is addressed in advance, allowing inspectors to legally operate in the requesting state under their home state credentials, which streamlines deployment and ensures rapid, lawful assistance when it's needed most.

FEMA Mutual Aid for Building Departments (MABD) Fact Sheets

Assistance: Mutual aid
Details: These fact sheets explain how mutual aid agreements work for building departments. Understanding this information can help you become familiarized with laws, regulations, benefits, and protections related to mutual aid.

Natural disasters can often leave local building officials overwhelmed with the task of assessing structural damage and ensuring public safety. Mutual aid for building departments is a straightforward concept where skilled professionals from neighboring jurisdictions step in to assist communities with inspections, hazard mitigation, and other building department functions in the wake of a catastrophic event.

Emergency Medical Services

Deploying Emergency Medical Services (EMS) through mutual aid presents unique challenges, particularly around licensure, scope of practice, and operational coordination.

While the EMS Compact facilitates license reciprocity across member states, allowing qualified personnel to practice in other states during declared emergencies, deployments must still be coordinated through EMAC to ensure legal protections and proper authorization. Key issues include ensuring EMS personnel are practicing within the scope defined by the receiving state, addressing liability and medical direction, and maintaining compliance with varying protocols and standards of care.

Additionally, logistical challenges such as integration with local EMS systems, communication interoperability, and resource tracking can complicate deployments. Clear agreements, pre-planning, and close coordination between EMAC, the EMS Compact, and state EMS offices are critical for safe, effective EMS mutual aid operations.

Fire and Hazardous Materials

Deploying Emergency Medical Services (EMS) through mutual aid presents unique challenges, particularly around licensure, scope of practice, and operational coordination.

While the EMS Compact facilitates license reciprocity across member states, allowing qualified personnel to practice in other states during declared emergencies, deployments must still be coordinated through EMAC to ensure legal protections and proper authorization. Key issues include ensuring EMS personnel are practicing within the scope defined by the receiving state, addressing liability and medical direction, and maintaining compliance with varying protocols and standards of care.

Additionally, logistical challenges such as integration with local EMS systems, communication interoperability, and resource tracking can complicate deployments. Clear agreements, pre-planning, and close coordination between EMAC, the EMS Compact, and state EMS offices are critical for safe, effective EMS mutual aid operations.

Human Services

Deploying human services personnel through mutual aid supports the emotional, social, and practical needs of individuals and families impacted by disasters. These missions may include behavioral health services, crisis counseling, family reunification support, services for children or vulnerable adults, and coordinating shelter or housing assistance. Personnel may be deployed to support overwhelmed local systems, especially after large-scale or prolonged disasters. Challenges can include navigating different state systems, resource limitations, cultural and language barriers, and ensuring continuity of care. A notable example occurred during Hurricane Katrina, when mutual aid missions included deploying social workers and behavioral health specialists to assist displaced individuals in shelters across multiple states. EMAC facilitates these deployments by providing a legal framework, addressing liability and licensure issues, and enabling rapid response with qualified professionals from other states.

Incident Management

Deploying incident management teams (IMTs) through mutual aid helps overwhelmed jurisdictions regain control and coordination during complex or large-scale emergencies.

These missions often include command and general staff support such as operations, planning, logistics, and public information functions.

IMTs may integrate with local emergency management or operate independently in support of specific sectors like wildfire response, animal/agriculture incidents, or mass care operations. Common challenges include differences in local protocols, limited situational awareness upon arrival, and the need to quickly establish trust and interoperability with local officials.

Incident Management is a very common resource deployed through EMAC. EMAC enables such deployments by establishing pre-negotiated agreements around liability, credentialing, and reimbursement, ensuring IMTs can legally and effectively serve in other states during times of crisis.

Law Enforcement

Deploying law enforcement officers through mutual aid—whether automatic, intrastate, or interstate via EMAC—requires careful coordination to ensure legal authority, jurisdictional compliance, and officer safety. One of the most critical considerations is the power of arrest. When deployed through EMAC, law enforcement officers must be officially sworn in upon arrival by the jurisdiction having authority in the Requesting State. This process grants them temporary powers of arrest and ensures they operate under the legal framework of the receiving jurisdiction. Unlike other disciplines, law enforcement actions carry significant legal implications, making proper credentialing and liability coverage essential. Officers do not carry their state’s arrest authority across borders automatically; it must be formally transferred through this swearing-in process. Law enforcement is a commonly deployed resource in automatic mutual aid agreements—especially among neighboring cities or counties where agreements are pre-established for rapid response—as well as during large-scale events or disasters requiring EMAC coordination across state lines. Successful deployments depend on pre-existing agreements, established protocols for credential verification, and clear understanding of the host state's laws and use-of-force standards.

Mass Care

Mass care through mutual aid often involves large-scale coordination of sheltering, feeding, and essential support services for displaced populations.

One notable example is the EMAC mission between Oklahoma and Louisiana, where Oklahoma deployes a comprehensive mass care team to support shelter operations in a Louisiana state park. This mission showcases a “Shelter in a Box” approach—an innovative, self-contained model where the deploying state brings everything needed to establish and operate a functional shelter, including trained staff, supplies, and logistical support. The Oklahoma team provides full wraparound services, including registration, food service, dormitory management, medical and behavioral health support, and accessible accommodations for individuals with functional and access needs. Mass care deployments like this underscore the importance of pre-planned capabilities, interagency coordination, and a clear understanding of each jurisdiction’s expectations to ensure seamless support for survivors during disaster response.

Public Health & Medical

Public health and medical mutual aid deployments are vital in disasters involving widespread illness, injury, or disruptions to healthcare systems. These missions often include the deployment of nurses, doctors, epidemiologists, behavioral health professionals, and medical support teams. A key consideration is licensure—responding personnel must meet the credentialing and scope-of-practice requirements of the Requesting State.

The Nurse Licensure Compact (NLC) plays a critical role in facilitating these deployments by allowing nurses to practice across state lines in compact member states. However, the NLC alone does not authorize deployment; EMAC provides the legal and operational framework to activate and protect personnel under interstate mutual aid.

Through EMAC, states can verify credentials, ensure legal protections, and deploy teams that meet the clinical standards and public health protocols of the receiving jurisdiction. Whether responding to a pandemic, mass casualty event, or evacuation shelter, public health and medical missions require tight coordination between EMAC Coordinators, state health departments, licensing boards, and the deployed personnel to ensure continuity of care and compliance with all regulatory requirements.

National Guard

The National Guard is a critical mutual aid resource and frequently deploys through EMAC under Title 32 or State Active Duty (SAD) status—both of which keep the Guard under the control of their Governor, not the federal government. These deployments allow states to share humanitarian capabilities such as security, logistics, aviation, engineering, search and rescue, and medical support while maintaining state authority and operational flexibility.

EMAC provides the legal framework to enable these cross-state National Guard deployments with clear lines of authority, liability coverage, and reimbursement mechanisms. The only time the National Guard does not deploy through EMAC is when they are activated under Title 10, placing them under the command and control of the President of the United States, which federalizes the force and removes state authority. EMAC allows Guard units to operate seamlessly in support of other states while respecting jurisdictional sovereignty, ensuring that mission-ready troops can be rapidly and lawfully deployed to support civil authorities in times of crisis.

Public Works

Public works resources are essential to disaster response and recovery, often among the first deployed to restore critical infrastructure. Through mutual aid—whether automatic, intrastate, or interstate via EMAC—public works teams can assist with debris removal, road clearance, utility repair, water and wastewater restoration, and other vital functions.

These deployments can include personnel such as heavy equipment operators, utility crews, engineers, and damage assessment teams, along with specialized equipment like dump trucks, backhoes, and generators.

Automatic mutual aid agreements often allow neighboring jurisdictions to assist each other immediately after an event, while intrastate and interstate mutual aid provide scalable support for larger incidents. When deployed through EMAC, public works personnel can operate under the direction of the Requesting State, ensuring a coordinated effort to rapidly restore services and keep communities safe and functioning.

Search and Rescue

Search and Rescue (SAR) teams are vital in the immediate aftermath of disasters, where lives may still be at risk. SAR resources can be deployed through automatic mutual aid agreements, intrastate coordination, or interstate missions via EMAC. These teams may include urban search and rescue (USAR), swift water rescue, wilderness SAR, canine teams, and technical rope rescue units, along with the specialized equipment required for locating and extricating victims. When deployed through EMAC, SAR personnel operate under the legal authority of the Requesting State, ensuring proper credentialing, liability protection, and coordination with local incident command. Challenges such as differing training standards, communication systems, and operational protocols can be overcome through pre-established agreements and coordinated planning. Whether rescuing individuals trapped in collapsed buildings, floodwaters, or remote terrain, mutual aid enables SAR teams to respond rapidly and effectively when every second counts.

Telecommunicator Emergency Response

Telecommunicators—often the unseen first responders—play a crucial role in disaster response by maintaining 911 and emergency communications operations. Through the Telecommunicator Emergency Response Taskforce (TERT), trained 911 professionals can be deployed via EMAC to assist overwhelmed or displaced public safety answering points (PSAPs). These personnel are specially trained to integrate into unfamiliar systems, handle high call volumes, and provide critical relief to local dispatchers. When deployed through EMAC, TERT members are vetted, credentialed, and operate under the legal protections of the Compact while following the standards and protocols of the Requesting State. Deployments may include full staffing for temporary 911 centers, call-taking support, or radio communications assistance. By leveraging mutual aid, jurisdictions can maintain vital communication lifelines and ensure public safety services remain uninterrupted, even in the face of widespread disaster impacts.

Volunteers

Volunteers are a powerful force in disaster response, but their deployment through mutual aid—whether intrastate or via EMAC—requires proper affiliation and structure. To ensure safety, accountability, and legal protections, volunteer personnel must be affiliated with a recognized organization and have established agreements with their state or local emergency management agency. These agreements help ensure volunteers are trained, credentialed, and deployed as part of a coordinated response effort. Unaffiliated or spontaneous volunteers cannot be deployed through EMAC, as the Compact requires official authorization and mission tracking. When integrated properly, affiliated volunteers can support a wide range of missions—such as sheltering, logistics, donations management, and disaster survivor assistance—providing critical capacity during emergencies while operating under the oversight and protections of formal emergency management systems.