SeeCalifornia.com

Pictured is a man awaiting rescue from the rubble, and 57 members of Los Angeles County’s Fire & Rescue USA-2/California Task Force 2 Medium Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team boarding a C-17 at March Air Force Base for deployment to Nepal. Assisting with rescue and recovery efforts following a 7.9-magnitude earthquake on Friday in Kathmandu, they are expected to arrive today, April 27, 2015. It’s a race against the clock for these highly trained specialists who join similar teams from around the globe in the search and rescue effort. Nepal is one of the world’s most popular tourist regions which includes the challenging and famed Mt. Everest. Tourists trying to get out of the country face delayed and cancelled flights but have been helped with temporary tents set up as rest areas while waiting up to several days for departing flights.

The 2,000 year old city of Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal and is about the size of San Jose, Calif. with over 1 million residents.

LA County Fire Department programs include the elite lifeguard division which serves over 20 million tourists and locals at Southern California beaches, Shakey Quakey School House earthquake machine on wheels available for presentations to civic groups and schools in the Los Angeles area, the Los Angeles County Fire Museum, and many other programs.  The rescue team is posting updates here: https://twitter.com/laco_fd