These Bay Area first responders are headed to Florida for Hurricane Milton assistance

Lauren Martinez Image
Thursday, October 10, 2024
Bay Area first responders headed to Florida for Milton assistance
Bay Area first responders headed to Florida for Milton assistanceAlameda County first responders, PG&E crews, and two San Francisco Fire Department search dogs are heading to Florida for Hurricane Milton recovery.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- Paramedics and EMTs are making the 40-hour drive from Hayward to South Florida.

On Tuesday night, two strike teams prepped and packed ambulances from Falck, the 911 ambulance provider for Alameda County.

MORE: Hurricane Milton live updates

David Torres is the Managing Director Chief of Falck Alameda County EMS.

"It could be anything from aiding evacuations, taking over the ambulance transport for a community that's hard hit but they will receive an assignment when they arrive," Torres said.

Torres said when he polled for volunteers, more than 100 offered to go.

"It shows how resilient they are, I think their daily work is tenuous and stressful and busy, but they're willing to drop everything," Torres said.

Last Friday, PG&E deployed teams from Sacramento to Georgia so they could respond to Hurricane Helene. Earlier this week crews headed to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

"This response for PG&E is actually record-breaking," PG&E Spokesperson Tamar Sarkissian said. "We are sending more than 400 crew members and personnel over to the East Coast and that is the largest number we have sent to a natural disaster."

MORE: How to help those impacted by Hurricane Helene: Charities, organizations to support relief efforts

Crews will help restore power and rebuild infrastructure.

"In fact, I heard that there is going to be approximately 36,000 mutual aid utility workers from around the country and Canada working side by side to make sure they get their power back on," Sarkissian said.

On Wednesday, two more San Francisco Fire Department search dogs were deployed to assist with Hurricane Milton.

Bosco and Reva are trained to find victims and people in need.

Former Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Shapelhouman was part of a water rescue team that responded to Katrina and provided insight into what the crews headed to Florida might face.

"It's something you never thought you'd see, it's like the end of the world, right, in some ways," Shapelhouman said.

VIDEO: Hurricane Milton evacuees from Florida arrive at San Francisco

Some families evacuating from Hurricane Milton in Florida flew to San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday.

Shapelhouman arrived in Shreveport on night one of Katrina and headed into New Orleans on day two.

He spent a total of 30 days there.

"I mean we really couldn't stay clean, we actually quit shaving because if you cut yourself you could get an infection and based on the areas we were working and the water was so polluted," Shapelhouman said.

Shapelhouman, has responded to roughly 20 hurricanes in his career with FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Teams.

He says the crews still on the way will have a critical role to play in the response, long after Milton is gone.

"What we do today is - and you can see it - is that we try and get on either side of the hurricane so that we're not in it, but we're close and as it goes through it's almost like a football play that hurricane goes through and you come in right behind it," Shapelhouman said.

Shapelhouman said many members of the Urban Search and Rescue Teams are firefighters.

"Again we like to think that because of our mentality of seconds, minutes, and hours in which we normally work, that we kind of bring a sense of urgency to that and treat it as seriously as it is," Shapelhouman said.

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