KETTERING, Ohio -- Ohio Task Force One deployed to Florida Tuesday morning to help with water rescue as Hurricane Michael is poised to slam the state's panhandle.
Ohio Task Force 1 is leaving this morning, heading to Florida to help when Hurricane Michael hits. We're live with their plans on GMTS @WCPO #9Traffic pic.twitter.com/ddmP1RBZrp
— Ally Kraemer (@AllyKraemer) October 9, 2018
The 16-member team will left at 8 a.m. from its warehouse in Kettering. The task force will help people who might be in danger as a result of the storm, similar to what they did withHurricane Florence just a few weeks ago.
Jason Knollman, of the Liberty Township Fire Department, helped rescue people from Hurricane Florence on the East Coast. Two weeks after his return, he’s leaving his family again.
“This morning got up about 4 a.m., woke my kids up, told them goodbye and headed out,” Knollman said. “It's tough for them to do, I have a 2-year-old and 5-year-old, something they get used to. We're lucky to have support of spouses that let us do this crazy stuff and kind of live a dream.”
Hurricane Michael is supposed to make landfall by Wednesday afternoon, threatening dangerous storm surges to low-lying areas ill-equipped to handle them -- and officials are urging people to get out of the way now.
Michael, spinning in the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 storm Tuesday morning, is expected to strengthen even more before making landfall Wednesday, possibly as a Category 3.
The team will check in with Federal Emergency Management Agency every two hours so they can position themselves as close to the storm as possible while keeping their safety in mind.
