U.S. Department of 
Homeland Security 
500 C Street, SW 
Washington, DC 20472 

 
August 2008 

Fact Sheet 

REGIONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM (ERT-A) 

ERT-As are disaster response teams located in each of FEMA’s ten Regions that can be deployed in 
the early phases of an incident to work directly with states to assess disaster impact, gain situational 
awareness, help coordinate the disaster response, and respond to specific requests for state and local 
assistance. The ERT-As consist of approximately 25 individuals from the FEMA Regions, who also 
have day-to-day responsibilities beyond their team assignments, and representatives from the 
Emergency Support Function departments and agencies. The ERT-A initially establishes its presence 
in a state Emergency Operations Center and later helps to staff the Joint Field Office (JFO) to support 
the disaster response. The ERT-As deploy with basic communications capabilities including cell 
phones, wireless laptop computers, and a limited number of satellite cell phones. As needed, they can 
also be supported by FEMA’s Mobile Emergency Response Support (MERS) detachments and their 
emergency communications capabilities. 

Currently, a new generation of emergency response teams, known as Incident Management 
Assistance Teams (IMAT), are being established that will eventually subsume the existing mission of 
the ERT-As and expand their capabilities. The IMATs will incorporate similar leadership concepts, 
emergency management doctrine, and operational communications concepts; however, they will be 
staffed with a core of permanent full-time employees dedicated to team responsibilities, unlike the 
ERTs, which are staffed on a collateral duty basis; will be fully compliant with NIMS and ICS; and 
will train and exercise as a unit. 

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