DENVER — A Colorado search and rescue task force is heading back to Florida from North Carolina to help local authorities prepare and respond to Hurricane Milton after it "explosively" intensified into a Category 5 storm by Monday morning.
Colorado Task Force 1, one of 28 urban search and rescue task forces under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has been on the road for nearly two weeks, after the team took off to Chattanooga, Tenn., to respond to Hurricane Helene, which has killed at least 230 people as of Monday.
Since then, the team has been helping victims hit by Helene in Tennessee, Florida and Asheville, N.C., which suffered catastrophic damage from flooding after the hurricane’s impacts were felt hundreds of miles inland.
In a social media post on X, formerly Twitter, officials from the West Metro Fire Protection District, which is the sponsoring agency of Colorado Task Force 1 (CO-TF1), said the task force had completed its work in North Carolina and was now heading to Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton.
The team, which will join six other FEMA US&R teams already there, was expected to arrive in the area by 5 p.m. MST.
Hurricane Milton is now the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic since Hurricane Dorian of 2019 and forecasters with the National Weather Service in Tampa Bay said earlier Monday that if the storm stays in its current track, "it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years."
10/07/24 11am Major Hurricane Milton Update
— NWS Tampa Bay (@NWSTampaBay) October 7, 2024
⚠️Now a Category 5 Hurricane
⚠️If the storm stays on the current track, it will be the worst storm to impact the Tampa area in over 100 years.
⚠️Please evacuate if told to do so.
⚠️Complete all prep before tomorrow night. #flwx pic.twitter.com/Cq9tJsfr2A
Weather service officials urged people to evacuate if told to do so and to complete all prep before Tuesday night.
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