NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Task Force One, a team of search and rescue firefighters and medics from the New Orleans Area arrived in Orlando just hours after Hurricane Milton blew through.
The category 3 storm plowed through Florida Wednesday night, leaving flooded-out streets and homes and knocking down trees and powerlines through a large swath of the state’s west coast.
“What the state did was they broke sections of the state off into different branches,” said St. Bernard Fire Chief Earl Borden, the task force leader. “Our branch is Branch Five, which consists of the Orlando Metro area and surrounding counties.”
The Louisiana National Guard is also part of the hurricane response effort.
That includes 500 engineers and a 100-person truck company to help with debris removal.
The guard also sent two Blackhawk helicopters and crew to help rescue storm victims if needed.
Helicopter pilot, Capt. Knight Roddy said they are stationed in the Sarasota area.
“We’ve got some water on some roads, a few missing roofs, some trees down, but it wasn’t near what we expected it to be with the eye, hitting right here,” Roddy said.
Another strike team of about 25 firefighters from Jefferson, St. Tammany and East Baton Rouge Parishes also left for Florida.
They are expected to help local fire departments in storm-damaged areas.
“Usually, what happens [is] they’ll come here and backfill their stations and respond to the normal calls that they would get that wouldn’t be storm-related to allow these guys to get some downtime and go check out their own homes,” said Willie Parker from the LA Fire Marshal’s Office.
The Terrytown, Marrero-Harvey, Bridge City and Harvey Fire Departments are also part of the strike team, along with five fire engines and one support unit.
