BEVERLY, MASS. (WHDH) - A rescue team from Beverly made their way to the Florida coast overnight, while a second stands by waiting to see if Hurricane Dorian will require another set of helping hands.
Heavy equipment, boats, and generators were loaded onto a number of trucks as members of the Massachusetts Task Force One raced down the eastern coastline to be ready if and when Dorian makes landfall.
“They are never the same,” Mark Foster of the Massachusetts Urban Search and Rescue team said. “No matter how many of these you go to, there is always something different. There is always something challenging.”
The 45-member crew was deployed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency officials over the weekend to be pre-positioned ahead of the monster storm.
“It is a Category 5 which is a pretty good storm and they’re saying there’s 200 mile per hour gusts, 150 mile an hour winds,” Foster said.
Bernie Rouillard of the Mass. Task Force One said that pre-positioning the team and the equipment is absolutely critical.
“Well, you hope you don’t have to go and that there is never a need for our services but, when the time comes, we want to be prepared and be able to help,” Rouillard said.
Based in Beverly, the men and women who make up the rescue team are well-versed in responding to these types of calls.
“We were at the World Trade Center, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, this is kinda getting almost to be an old hat so to speak,” Foster said.
Now, emergency responders from across New England are in place and anxiously waiting to see what Hurrricane Dorian will do.
“The best outcome is this storm goes out to sea,” Foster said. “We can only hope right?”
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