The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in cooperation with other federal, state, and local agencies, created The National Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) Response System to provide a national heavy rescue capability that provides lifesaving resources to victims of structural collapse. It was particularly designed to rescue victims entrapped in collapsed structures of heavy reinforced concrete construction. When this system was developed in 1990, there was limited capability in only a few states to perform this mission, and no resources available for a national response.