MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Members of Tennessee Task Force 1 were up before dawn Thursday loading up all of their gear and getting ready to deploy to Louisiana in anticipation of Delta.
The 80 member team made up of local firefighters, paramedics, doctors and engineers were sent to Ponchatoula and will be responisble for water search and rescue. They told WREG’s Melissa Moon they anticaipte being down there for a week, but depending on what happens with Delta, it could be even longer.
“You really can’t judge or predict what’s going to happen. You just prepare for the worst and hope for the best,” said Colin Burress.
“We are prepared whether it’s passing out water and food to the communities. We’ll do that. But also if someone is having their worst day, we want to be there to help them out.”
Tennessee Task Force 1 is one of FEMA’s busiest urban search and rescue response teams. Leaders said that’s because they can get to hurricane prone areas within just a few hours.
With the pandemic front and center, they’re taking precautions.
“We still try enforce that hard standard to make sure we wear these masks all the time, making sure use hand sanitizers. Just all things associated with COVID right now,” said Jerad Talbert.
Talbert said while it’s added a new element to their jobs, they are up to the challenge.
Louisiana is still recovering from the devastation of a powerful hurricane that hit less than two months ago.
The 25th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season is expected to blow ashore on Friday with winds of up to 100 mph (160 kph). Forecasts placed most of Louisiana within Delta’s path, including the southwest area of the state around Lake Charles, where in late August Category 4 Hurricane Laura ripped houses from their foundations, peeled off roofs and tore trailers in half.
