Seth Johnson
The Alachua County Fire Rescue (ACFR) Mutual Aid Radio Communications team and the Region 3 Strike Team from Jacksonville headed for Louisiana Sunday morning to help with hurricane cleanup efforts.
The two units joined another strike team from Region 1 in the panhandle before travelling on to the Pelican State.
The team’s mission is to provide fire rescue services to an area that was hit hard by Hurricane Ida and lacks additional fire or EMS services, according toan ACFR press release.
The hurricane left over 1 million residents without power and 441,000 without water. As of Sunday, over half a million still lacked electricity as 25,000 utility workers from across the country work to restore over 2,000 miles of downed transmission lines.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards reported 13 people had died in his state, while in the northeast, the remnants of Hurricane Ida claimed about 50 lives in flash flooding.
“It’s been a very challenging week for people all over southeast Louisiana,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said at a Sunday press conference. “And there’s been an awful lot of really good work, hard work.”
But, Edwards said a lot of work remains.
“We know there are a lot of people out there that are in fact hurting, and we’re going to continue to work hard every single day to bring additional relief and to make progress,” he said.