NEW YORK (PIX11) – A New York task force arrived in South Carolina ahead of Hurricane Idalia, the New York City Emergency Management said Tuesday.
The task force, called the Urban Search and Rescue New York Task Force 1, is made up of 46 members from the FDNY, NYPD and NYCEM. Two K-9s are also on the ground in South Carolina, officials said.
Officials said the team is trained in search and rescue, disaster recovery, emergency triage and medicine. The task force has also been deployed to help with Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in 2017, Hurricane Florence in 2018 and Hurricane Ian in 2022.
“While Hurricane Idalia isn’t a threat to New York City, the urgency isn’t lost on us; we are fully prepared to lend our expertise and specialized skills to assist those in the storm’s path,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
Idalia has made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 storm as of Wednesday morning.
Erin Pflaumer is a digital content producer from Long Island who has covered both local and national news since 2018. She joined PIX11 in 2023. See more of her work here.
