The Lincoln based Nebraska Task Force One crews have been activated and deployed to the Gulf Coast in preparation for Hurricane Helene, which is expected to make landfall in Florida as a Category 3 on Thursday night.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency dispatched the 45-member team Wednesday afternoon, including three Lincoln Fire & Rescue (LFR) Battalion Chiefs with the Urban Search and Rescue Blue Incident Support Team and Task Force Leader Capt. Dan Ripley.
“This concern with this specific hurricane is massive flooding. Obviously, winds for a category 3 storm are going to be close to triple digit speeds, but we’re looking for a lot of inland flooding. That surge that comes with the hurricane is going to be of concern for us,” said Ripley at a pre-deployment press conference.
At this time, Nebraska crews do not have a specific deployment location. Crews will receive more specific instructions as the storm makes impact.
Along with manpower, Ripley says NE-TF1 is bringing additional recourses in the case of damaging winds, catastrophic flooding, and potential landslides.
“That means we bring a large cache of heavy rescue equipment, we bring a large cache of water rescue equipment, and then a cache of wide area search equipment,” he said.
The National Hurricane Center is forecasting Hurricane Helene will strengthen into a major hurricane before hitting Florida.
Lincoln Electric System crews loaded up several trucks at noon on Wednesday and headed to Georgia to help utility companies there with anticipated power restoration efforts caused by Hurricane Helene.