“The DFD is proud of our highly trained technical rescue team members that step away from work and family at a moment’s notice for these deployments,” the department said.
Ohio Task Force 1 urban search and rescue team was activated Wednesday. An 85-member team with 16 vehicles headed to the College Station, Texas, area for staging.
The team assembled at 5 p.m. Wednesday and were scheduled to leave at 9 p.m. from its Vandalia warehouse, task force public information officer Phil Sinewe said.
Hurricane Laura strengthened Wednesday to a Category 4 and may bring “unsurvivable” storm surge to the Texas-Louisiana border, the National Hurricane Center said.
At 1 a.m. Thursday Hurricane Laura made landfall in southwestern Louisiana.
The storm has the potential to leave areas uninhabitable for weeks or months and power outages lasting for months in places.
This is the 15-year anniversary for Hurricane Katrina, a large Category 5 hurricane that led to more than 1,800 deaths and caused $105 billion in damage, particularly in New Orleans, in August 2005, according to the National Weather Service.
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