Some Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service first responders are among emergency personnel from across the country heading down to Louisianna to help with Hurricane Laura response efforts.
About 45 specialized members from the Montgomery County MDTF-1 FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Team are heading to Baton Rouge, La. A caravan of more than a dozen vehicles—including two tractor-trailers, two box trucks, passenger vans, and equipment trailers—departed from Rockville around 1:30 a.m. Thursday.
According to The Weather Channel, as of Thursday morning, Hurricane Laura is moving inland across Louisiana with damaging winds, flooding rain, and tornadoes after a category four landfall.
MCFRS Spokesperson Pete Piringer says this is the first deployment during a pandemic, and extra vehicles were added to the caravan to allow for social distancing. Piringer shared a video of the caravan departing in the tweet below:
Maryland Task Force 1 @fema Urban Search & Rescue caravan of more than dozen @mcfrs @fema vehicles departs Rockville ~130a Thursday morn – safe travels https://t.co/oFO7KERm0L
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) August 27, 2020
ICYMI @MontgomeryCoMD Urban Search & Rescue @fema MDTF-1 (Maryland Task Force 1) has been activated (8/26) w/ others from NJ, UT, MA, AZ, VA, FL, WA, NV, NY NOTE: MDTF-1 @mcfrs sent a complement of 45 people & equipment (Type3) NOTE: caravan departed Rockville ~130a (8/27) https://t.co/BEh4n80wsy pic.twitter.com/37rBEb9PUl
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) August 27, 2020
MDTF-1 @fema Urban Search & Rescue Team @MontgomeryCoMD have bags packed, vehicle loaded & fueled up, members briefed & ready to go – the caravan of 2 tractor trailers, 2 box trucks & more than dozen passenger vans & equipment trailers will depart ~130a – safe travels https://t.co/TuLBxvaixT pic.twitter.com/2k0Y55XC4X
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) August 27, 2020
@MontgomeryCoMD Acting Chief Administrative Officer @RichMadaleno & Fire Chief Scott Goldstein are in Rockville warehouse to see MDTF-1 Urban Sesrch & Rescue Team off – they will deploy a Task Force of 45 specialized members incl several from PGCo & HowCo @PGFDNews @HCDFRS pic.twitter.com/MMQaRguA81
— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO) August 27, 2020
