This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
Members of Virginia Task Force 1, Fairfax County’s international urban-search-and-rescue team, have been deployed to Florida ahead of what is now Tropical Storm Ian.
In partnership with FEMA, a 45-person task force from Fairfax will head to Florida along with two other FEMA teams.
Ian is forecast to approach Florida’s west coast at or near major hurricane strength early next week. The National Hurricane Center reported Saturday “increasing confidence in multiple life-threatening hazards: storm surge, hurricane-force winds and rainfall flooding.”
Va. Task Force 1 is a self-contained team consisting of technical search-and-rescue specialists, structural engineers, physicians, paramedics, search canines, and communications and planning specialists from all over Northern Virginia.
You can follow the team’s travels on their Twitter page.