Fifty members of Missouri’s Task Force One are helping the east coast with Hurricane Florence efforts. Gail Blomenkamp with the Boone County Fire Protection District says the members have been deployed to Raleigh, North Carolina.
“All of our techs are either swift water rescue technicians or boat operator technicians,” Blomenkamp says.
He says the group has four hours to get on the road after it gets its orders.
“We load 100,000 pounds of equipment in tractor trailers and pickups with trailers,” he says. “It’s a convoy of twelve vehicles.”
The emergency response team based out of mid-Missouri could be in North Carolina for about two weeks.
“We’ve been to this area. We know this area,” he says. “Many of these people deploying today have been deployed in multiple other deployments.”
Blomenkamp says roughly 25 of the country’s 28 urban search and rescue teams are helping with storm relief efforts on the east coast and in Hawaii.
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