Pierce County official: Milton prompts largest deployment of urban search and rescue specialists since 9/11

A team of 80 first responders, police, engineers and other urban search and rescue specialists from Western Washington have deployed to Florida in preparation for destruction from Hurricane Milton, a spokesperson with Pierce County Emergency Management (PCEM) told KIRO Newsradio on Wednesday.

The team, Washington Task Force One, is comprised of emergency personnel from many different local agencies, specializing in urban search and rescue, medical care, firefighting, engineering and more.

“People are trained to do all sorts of rescue-related tasks,” spokesperson Mike Halladay with PCEM said. “That could be confined space entry, it could be rescuing somebody that’s underneath rubble, it could be rescuing somebody who’s in a trench or some sort of hole that’s been carved out by the storm. They are trained to provide first aid. They are trained to do technical rescue work with ropes.”

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Its members previously deployed to help residents impacted by the Maui wildfires; most recently, human remains search teams and canines went to North Carolina after Hurricane Helene left widespread flooding and power outages.

On Saturday, about 30 of the specialists got on the road to Florida after loading about 90,000 pounds of gear onto a series of trucks, including their own rescue watercraft, according to Halladay. The latter team of 50 responders flew out of Western Washington Monday, and are now waiting for orders from FEMA at a base in Mobile, Alabama.

Washington Task Force One is one of the 28 Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces under FEMA. Halladay said 24 of those teams from across the country have deployed to the Sunshine State.

“I was talking with our task force leader who’s a part of this mission, and he said the last time he recalled this many task forces being deployed was for September 11,” he said.

First responders aren’t the only Washingtonians jumping into the fray ahead of the hurricane’s projected landfall near Sarasota, Florida.

Chuck Woods, a summer camp director from Wenatchee, traveled to Central Florida with fellow volunteers of veteran-led organization Team Rubicon. Woods said his team of eight will carry fallen trees, debris and power lines of critical access routes.

“Clearing these roads means that ambulances, firefighters can get to anybody that’s injured,” he said. “Critical supplies, fuel, food, medication, things like that.”

Woods last told KIRO Newsradio winds had started to pick up as he headed south from Gainesville.

“It’s definitely my first route clearing,” he said. “We’re just excited to be here to support the community and tackle whatever comes our way.”

At a warehouse in Fife, volunteers with World Vision loaded supplies onto a semi-truck bound for a Florida church on Wednesday.

The shipment contained water, diapers, socks, flood buckets, clothes and generators among other supplies, Roberta Taylor with World Vision, a humanitarian organization based in Federal Way, said.

“When you lose everything – and a lot of people, they lose even the photos, every memory that they have of their entire life – so being able to give them just a small piece of hope, something that they can call their own, is very near and dear to me,” she said.

Related news: Hurricane Milton lashes Florida; worst yet to come

Taylor said a two-man team is driving around the clock, hauling the shipment on a 46-hour drive from Fife to the Tampa area over the course of about two days. It’s one of 12 truckloads the organization plans to move into the state after first responders deem the roads safe – possibly with help from people like Woods.

Washington Task Force One members plan to remain in Florida for rescue efforts for two weeks.

“They are used to going into these areas and seeing a lot of devastation and seeing a lot of people in need and helping them,” Halladay said. “That is what they’ve trained to do, that is what they want to do.”

Sam Campbell is a reporter, editor and anchor at KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of Sam’s stories here. Follow Sam on X, or email him here.

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