San Diego's fire department has sent a five-member task force to Florida to help coordinate search and rescue missions as Hurricane Dorian nears Florida, officials said Monday.
Urban Search & Rescue Task Force 8, which is coordinated through the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, dispatched the team.
Officials said they are prepared to send more resources if needed, as many as 70 local firefighters could be tapped to provide assistance.
The San Diego task force is specially trained to assist local agencies nationwide in mitigating large-scale urban disasters, both natural and man made. The team's expertise is "confined space search and rescue" where structures have collapsed.
"We have equipment for breaking, breaching, lifting, shoring buildings, we have boats and motors for operating in a flooded environment, logistical support for our personnel, medical equipment for our personnel as well as people we rescue," said San Diego Battalion Chief David Gerboth.
San Diego Urban Search & Rescue CA Task Force 8 has sent 5 members to Florida to assist as part of the #Dorian incident support team. The entire team is ready to respond with more resources based upon the hurricane’s activity. #USAR pic.twitter.com/LUT1Y5LOZj
— SDFD (@SDFD) September 2, 2019
San Diego team members were dispatched to the World Trade Center after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to Los Angeles County after the Northridge earthquake in 1994, to the Midwest after the 1995 Oklahoma City Federal Building bombing, and to Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
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US&R was developed in 1990 by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in response to several disasters which occurred in the 1980s. The Loma Prieta earthquake, in particular, brought a significant focus on the federal, state and local governments' abilities to respond to such disasters.
Hurricane Dorian was slamming the Bahamas on Monday with winds of 165 mph. Its track was dangerously close to a long swath of the East Coast from Florida to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and southeastern Virginia this week.
