Maryland Task Force One – a volunteer rescue unit made up of firefighters and some civilians from Montgomery, Prince George’s and other Maryland counties – will return home Tuesday after providing aid to Florida residents in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
The team traveled to Florida roughly 10 days ago to help jumpstart recovery efforts from the Category 4 hurricane. The storm killed more than 100 people and caused massive destruction across Florida when it made landfall on Sept. 28, according to the New York Times.
The 45-member team was demobilized on Tuesday alongside several other FEMA urban search and rescue units, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) Chief Spokesperson Pete Piringer.
Team members conducted building searches and worked to identify missing people during their deployment to Florida. They also collaborated with local, state and federal officials to account for residents in areas with large amounts of destruction from the storm, Piringer wrote on Twitter last week.
The task force also received a thank you message on the scoreboard at JetBlue Park in Fort Myers, Fla. – an area that faced massive storm damage – before their departure.
The team’s 15-vehicle caravan is expected to arrive at the Task Force headquarters sometime Tuesday afternoon, Piringer said.
Task force members also traveled to Puerto Rico in late September to assist with recovery from Hurricane Fiona, another Category 4 hurricane that CNN reported took the lives of roughly 25 people.
