ST. LOUIS – Missouri Task Force 1, the specialized urban search and rescue team deployed to assist with hurricane relief efforts, will remain for an extended period due to the pending arrival of Hurricane Milton.
On Tuesday, members of the task force finished targeted searches in areas of North Carolina where individuals had not been heard from.
“It’s not just search and rescue,” task force spokesman Assistant Chief Gale Blomenkamp, Boone County Fire Protection District, said. “This one turned into more of a search and recovery mission.”
He said it’s difficult work but important to provide families with closure.
Seventeen new members will rotate with 17 members who will be returning home. The team is expected to stage in a safe area until Hurricane Milton arrives.
“They have not been told their exact destination isn’t yet,” Blomenkamp said.
Members come from across the state of Missouri, including from departments in the St. Louis area.
“I want to thank the support of all the families and the employers out there,” Blomenkamp said. “I know we got many people from the St. Louis area that are that are either deployed or going on deployments and so without that support, we wouldn’t able do what we do.”
A state of emergency has already been declared for most of Florida. n Tuesday, Robert Whitener, an Alton native who now works as a nurse in St. Petersburg, said piles of debris remain in the Tampa-St. Pete area following Hurricane Helene.
“Debris removal dump trucks were going down a highway and they had police escorts, moving them down the highway just to get all that rubbish out of St. Pete,” Whitener said.
He said there’s a sense of urgency to remove the debris as quickly as possible before it turns into flying hazards.
Whitener helped move patients to a safer area from St. Petersburg to Lake City, Florida. He said the trip would normally take three hours, took ten hours to make because of the mass exodus of Floridians seeking safer ground.
“It’s been stressful,” he said.
Whitener hopes his former St. Louis area community will continue to show support through volunteering and donations as the area is headed for a long-term recovery.
“This will be a historic event so hopefully we’ll get through this,” he said. “Please keep us in mind.”
