What event measured a 5.6 on the Richter magnitude scale and led to the establishment of the New South Wales Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1?
Urban Search and Rescue New South Wales AUS-2 New South Wales Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 (or NSWTF/1) was first established as a USAR capability in the lead up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After earlier large-scale collapses including the 1977 Granville Train Disaster, 1989 Newcastle earthquake and 1997 Thredbo landslide, Fire & Rescue NSW was legislated as the combat authority for responding to major structural collapse incidents within the state of New South Wales.
2002 Hindu Kush earthquakes The 2002 Hindu Kush earthquakes struck in northern Afghanistan during the month of March. At least 166 people were killed with a very large and intermediate-depth mainshock on March 3. Three weeks later, at least a further thousand were killed during a large, but shallow aftershock that had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII ("Very strong"). The M7.4 and M6.1 reverse events were focused in the Hindu Kush mountain range area.