Utah Task Force One now in position for Hurricane Milton rescues

VALDOSTA, GA — As Hurricane Milton ferociously hammers Florida after making landfall Wednesday night, it’s not the only thing descending upon the Sunshine State.

Utah’s Task Force One, fresh from helping in Hurricane Helene’s aftermath, is now taking on an intense new assignment, and they’re in position to be among the first teams responding to the Category 3 hurricane.

The team marched into Valdosta, Georgia Wednesday, just 20 minutes from the Florida state line to get ready.

“We are on the fringes of where the storm’s going to hit, and we would expect to move in typically right behind the storm after it makes landfall,” said special operations division chief Bryan Case, program manager for Utah Task Force One.

They also beefed up their battalion Wednesday from a crew of 45 to a team of 80. Case explained the additional task force members, who come from fire departments around Utah, flew into Atlanta before meeting up with them in Valdosta.

The original group is now on day 13 of their deployment, having spent the first assignment in northeast Tennessee combing through massive debris piles, rappelling off broken bridges toward mangled vehicles that plummeted into rivers, and sifting through factories and buildings obliterated by the hurricane.

That assignment was not meant to find survivors.

“That was a recovery. That was a slower pace,” Case said, of their methodical and detailed search approach.

Utah Task Force One’s response to Hurricane Milton is expected to be much different, with the team preparing for fast-paced frontline search and rescue of people who may be trapped.

“When we get into Florida, we’re going to be the first ones on the ground in many cases, in the areas that we’re working in,” Case said. “So it is going to be an intense group of people, with very little time for prep.”

In addition to 80 team members, Utah Task Force One is carrying an arsenal of 80,000 pounds of equipment. They came prepared with rescue boats and fleet vehicles.

“They may have us doing focused searches in areas where they know, perhaps where a lot of people were not able to evacuate or did not choose to evacuate,” Case explained, of what FEMA may assign to them.

While their usual deployments last up to 14 days, he explained how because of the unprecedented back-to-back catastrophic events, FEMA asked them to extend for up to another 10 days.

For communities thrown into chaos, Case knows their work means the world.

“They are, in many cases, overwhelmed with emotion. Super happy to see us,” he said, of the people they often come across.

He talked about how it serves as motivation, while the group charges toward Hurricane Milton.

“We do what we can,” he said, “to be resilient and be prepared.”