Pa. emergency responders head south to provide aid during Hurricane Helene

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Florida’s Big Bend region is bracing for a direct hit from Hurricane Helene , which could make landfall Thursday night as at least a Category 3, possibly Cat 4, storm, with 85 mph winds.

Some areas could see 15 to 20 feet of storm surge — anything above 3 feet is considered life-threatening and “unsurvivable.”

Authorities in Florida are urging people near the Gulf Coast to get out while they can. Nearly 50 emergency responders with Pennsylvania Task Force 1 left the team’s Tacony headquarters Thursday morning for Greensboro, North Carolina to help with anticipated relief and recovery efforts.

The group is one of 28 federal urban search and rescue teams heading to the Southeast. Some teams are coming from as far north as Massachusetts and as far west as Colorado.

“We have to be prepared to do everything from swift water rescue to urban [search and rescue], structural collapse, wide area searches, house to house if need be,” said Brian Booth, a Philadelphia Fire Department captain and leader of Pennsylvania Task Force 1.

The team includes technical search specialists, doctors, canine units, hazmat experts and others, but Booth said the work they’re prepared to do goes beyond their actions.

“You have to be a people person,” he said. “There’s a humanistic approach. You have to be compassionate, understanding of the tragedy these people are going through.”

This isn’t the first deployment for Pennsylvania Task Force 1 this year. A team was sent to North Carolina in August during Tropical Storm Debby.

The task force is prepared to stay in North Carolina for 14 days or more, if needed.

“This is what we train for,” Booth added. “Everyone here wants to be here. Nobody’s forced to be here. We want to do good things and help people.”