One of America’s elite search and rescue teams stands ready to assist residents of Florida and the Atlantic Coast as Hurricane Dorian bears down.
Fox 10 WALA reported that Alabama Task Force One has been staged in Jacksonville, FL, after departing from Mobile Monday morning ahead of the storm’s arrival.
While many extra first responders from surrounding states, and support personnel from entities such as the Alabama National Guard, remain on stand-by to offer their assistance, those in the hurricane’s path can find extra assurance — and Alabamians can find pride — in knowing that this world-class outfit is ready to jump into action.
Alabama Task Force One is an urban search and rescue team made up of a premier group of firefighters highly trained in rope rescue and repelling techniques. Per Fox 10, they are also trained in water rescue and building collapse rescue.
“It’s not just Mobile firefighters it’s an 80 person team. A type-one team is an 80 person team. Probably half of that is Mobile firefighters and the rest are from surrounding fire departments and we have doctors nurses, structural engineers, dog handlers — you name it… we’re a self contained team, a rescue team,” Mobile Fire Chief Mark Sealy told Fox 10.
“If you look at geographically where the other type-one teams are, College Station [in] Texas, Memphis and Tampa, that’s the closest teams, and we have one right here in Mobile, Alabama. I think you ought to be very proud of that,” he added.
Alabama Task Force One posts updates on Facebook, where you can keep up with their journey, here.
Watch Fox 10’s report:
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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