Hurricane Fiona: Maryland first responders prepare to travel to Puerto Rico

ROCKVILLE, Md. – First responders from Maryland are anticipated to journey to Puerto Rico Monday to assist present reduction after Hurricane Fiona knocked out energy and triggered floods and landslides.

Maryland Job Drive 1 is a FEMA search and rescue process pressure made up of about 35 native firefighters and a few civilians: 15 from Montgomery County and others from Prince George’s, Howard, Fredrick and Anne Arundel counties.

Hurricane Fiona battered Puerto Rico Sunday, making landfall round 3:20 p.m. and leaving the whole island with out energy.

Montgomery County Fireplace Assistant Chief Daniel Ogren mentioned the duty is the one federal process pressure heading to the island, at the least for now.

“Now we have rescue and search personnel. Now we have hazardous supplies personnel. Now we have medical personnel, together with medical doctors,” Ogren mentioned Sunday. “Now we have canines for search, we’ve engineers. So all of them have tools to assist them do their jobs.”

He mentioned firefighters have been able to depart 5 p.m. Saturday, however had hassle getting a flight. Then their Sunday morning flight was canceled, and plans have been made to depart Monday morning.

“It may be irritating for the response personnel. They need to get there, they need to be in place, they need to be there to assist individuals,” Ogren mentioned. “And when points like this come up, we’re used to them, they occur on a regular basis particularly with these federal responses, nevertheless it by no means will get any simpler.”

He says each mission is for ten days, however it might probably find yourself being much less or extra time.

Ogren says the duty pressure was in Puerto Rico for a number of weeks following the devastation from Hurricane Maria in 2017.