Central Pennsylvania K-9 team heading South for 2nd hurricane recovery effort

CLEARFIELD COUNTY, Pa. (WTAJ) — One team of K-9s in Clearfield County that made a trip to Tennessee last week is now getting sent to North Carolina to assist in recovery efforts after two massive hurricanes swept through the southeast.

Butch Mann and Rachel Reinhart of the Clearfield County K-9 Response Search and Rescue Team have been making their rounds with their four dogs to help the communities that have been impacted by the disasters caused by Hurricanes Heline and Milton.

“You just can’t describe it. As some of the pictures and videos that I had sent you guys and what to expect where I’m going next is not even going to be comparable from what I’m hearing,” Mann said. “So what we do is they deploy you to whether it was sector A, B, C, or D, and you put your dog on a debris pile. Then when you are done, because the mud’s heavily contaminated, the water’s heavily contaminated, the dust that we were breathing, you had to wear N-95 masks. It was in the 90s the day we were down there. But every time you come back, you had to go through a complete decontamination process.”

As volunteers, Mann and Reinhart’s only goal is to help families in need during this hard time through their search and rescues. As for the dogs who make the trip, they are prepared for whatever may come their way.

“We have them climb up rocks, even, like playground stairs, going down slides. Anything that they could possibly get into helps build up their confidence on being able to climb certain stuff or go down and things that could be unsecured type,” Reinhart said.

Get the latest news, weather forecasts and sports stories delivered straight to your inbox! Sign up for our newsletters .

The crew said that they would keep WTAJ updated on their trip down to North Carolina.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com.