Tennessee Emergency Teams Heading to Florida to Help in Hurricane Dorian Response

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The State of Tennessee deployed multiple first responder teams to Florida today to support ongoing life-safety readiness and response efforts for the eventual landfall of Hurricane Dorian next week.

Multiple teams  from around Tennessee, comprised of 121 emergency response personnel specializing in fuel support, medical care, urban search and rescue, and swift-water rescue are mobilizing to support Florida ahead of Hurricane Dorian making landfall.  The team breakdowns are as follows:

• An ambulance strike team of 48 emergency medical services personnel from the counties of, Anderson, Benton, Blount, Cheatham, Claiborne, Grainger, Green, Hamilton, Hardeman, Madison, Metro Nashville/Davidson, Montgomery, Sullivan, Sumner, and Weakley, and the cities of Bartlett and Germantown in Shelby County;

• An urban search and rescue team of 35 personnel with Tennessee Task Force 2; 

• A swift-water rescue team of 37 personnel from fire departments in Dickson, Madison, Shelby, and Williamson counties, and the cities of Ashland City in Dickson County and LaVergne in Rutherford County; and,

• One staff member from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Office of Energy Programs who will support Florida’s fuel operations during the emergency.

The teams will travel to Tallahassee, Fla. for further mission orders from Florida emergency officials. 

The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) is coordinating Tennessee’s Hurricane Dorian deployments through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), the nation’s state-to-state mutual aid system.

TEMA and its partners are monitoring the track of the hurricane to ensure that Tennessee is prepared to respond here or to help our neighbors should the storm’s track change.

Hurricane Dorian is now a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph maximum sustained winds.  Forecasters expect the hurricane to make landfall Monday, and pose a prolonged threat to Florida and possibly the southeastern U.S.

 About the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency: TEMA’s mission is to coordinate preparedness, response and recovery from man-made, natural and technological hazards in a professional and efficient manner in concert with our stakeholders. Follow TEMA on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and, at www.tn.gov/tema.