Double duty: Task Force 2 now heading for Florida after sending earlier team to Western NC

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — When two major hurricanes take aim at the southern U.S. in two weeks, a local team of recovery specialists must do double duty, and that’s what Virginia Task Force 2 is doing as they geared up Monday to send a team to central Florida to help local responders as they prepare for the impact of Hurricane Milton.

“This is something we trained for. We’re ready to do this,” said Michael Carter of Task Force 2.

While 80 task force members are already deployed to Mitchell County, N.C. after Hurricane Helene, special boats, all-terrain vehicles and a total of 17 firefighters, medics and other specialists were moving out Monday for Orlando, Fla.

“We do urban search and rescue, water rescue, any of those kind of things and any kind of humanitarian or assistance to Florida and or any surrounding areas,” Carter said.

Two days before expected landfall, we think we know where Milton will hit, but uncertainty remains — just as it does regarding when these responders might get back home.

“I can’t give you a really good timeframe about what our term would be,” Carter said. “It is going to depend on the storm and the needs that we’re asked to respond to.”

As one of FEMA’s Urban Search and Rescue teams, Task Force 2 is an agency with a history of responding to destructive and deadly forces, whatever they may be.

But two teams deployed at the same time in two very different locations nearly 600 miles apart, is “kind of a new thing for us,” Carter said.

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