Hurricane Ian: Texas first responders prepare to help with relief efforts in Florida
AUSTIN, Texas - As Hurricane Ian made landfall on Florida's coastline, several first responders from Central Texas were at a staging point in Alabama.
"But they know just a few hours down the road, it's going to be very, very chaotic and very nasty weather," said Aubury Holmes an Emergency Services Specialist with Williamson County.
Homes' job, from an office in Georgetown, is to help manage part of the deployment of Texas Task Force 1.
"I want to, I want to get in the game and kind of do my part. But right now, my part is doing the coordination piece and making sure that we have ample personnel and the correct personnel to respond to this," said Holmes.
The Florida search and rescue operation, according to Holmes, is tactical.
"So once we get guys on scene and actually in the fight, we want to get a good understanding of what their needs are and see what we can do to assist them. A lot of times what we do is we have what we call a short team that will go in first, kind of assess how things are. How big is big? How bad it's bad," said Holmes.
Another Hurricane Ian response team from Central Texas left early Wednesday morning. 18 line workers from Austin Energy with 6 bucket trucks, 3 digging derricks, and 12 support vehicles headed to Florida.
"Definitely a tear in the eye. Seeing them roll out. Wish I was going with them," said Austin Energy Operations Vice President Elton Richards.
The AE team is initially staging in northeast Florida.
"This storm is a little flaky the way it’s coming in, because it is actually crossing the state, if it goes its pattern, so we are actually expecting to go into Jacksonville, potentially go down to Tampa, and then work our way back, so we don’t believe Jacksonville will be our final location," said Richards.
The equipment the Texas teams have taken to Florida is certainly important, but they also have something else. Experience, with this type of storm. Like Ian, Hurricane Harvey, after making landfall, moved slowly.
"I remember with Harvey, there was a new color precipitation level that was kind of, at it for us," said Holmes.
The heavy rain from Harvey caused a lot of flooding.
"That's the most important takeaway is that there will be wind damage, there will be, you know, storm surge, but with a large scale of rain and that they're going to get that water, just going to sit, sit and sit. And that is definitely some experience that we can help provide to them is places that didn't normally flood will flood, places that you didn't normally see water, will have water. So just kind of helping them understand that it's going to be chaotic," said Holmes.
During Hurricane Harvey different types of rescues were required. Some by air, others with the use of small boats, and at times high profile vehicles plowed through swamped neighborhoods and urban areas. Texas tactics; now in play with Ian.