More than 1,400 urban search-and-rescue crew members — and more than 100 swift-water boats — were staged throughout the state in advance of Hurricane Milton’s landfall Wednesday night on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
State Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis told The News Service of Florida that crews from more than a dozen states, including California and Washington, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, were “waiting it out” to begin search-and-rescue operations as soon as possible.
“We’ve got every corner of this state covered,” Patronis said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
The teams include trauma surgeons, structural engineers and dogs used in search-and-rescue missions, Patronis said.
“So they will cover a lot of ground. … They will literally go from house to house in those areas that are most heavily affected,” Patronis said.
The chief financial officer noted that Milton is expected to smack into the state almost exactly six years after Hurricane Michael barreled into the Panhandle as a Category 5 storm on Oct. 10, 2018, and caused at least 16 deaths.
