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10 09 24 Colorado Task Force 1's Bob Olme talks about preparing for hurricane Milton
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Yeah, another 80 members are expected, and now for many days, a number of task force members have been deployed across the path of destruction that was left by Hurricane Helene, providing aid there as much as they can. Joining us now on the KOA Common Spirit Health Hotline to talk more about it is program manager for Colorado Task Force One. It's Bob Olme. Bob, thank you so much for joining us again this morning. Walk us through the process now of dealing. You said it from the start when you were looking at your team that was out helping with the hurricane elene efforts in just the matter of time when you knew you would have to deploy more people to Florida for this next storm. Right. We've been watching that storm milk in that monster now for quite some time and certainly it developed into more than even most had perhaps anticipated. And looking at the length of time that the current members that are out there have been in the field 16 days, we've made a decision to switch them out. So we're sending 80 fresh feet, if you will, to the on the ground and bringing that first group hope. Before we get into Milton, Bob, I do want to ask a little bit about Helene, what your team saw on the ground. And one of the big issues we've been covering is some of the misinformation about trying to get people help help in that area, especially in the western part of Carolina, North Carolina. What did your team respond to they see any of those issues have to deal with them? Perhaps the biggest issue I think was the loss of infrastructure roads were completely washed out bridges were gone. So we did a lot of search in humanitarian work by foot, if you will. We also took some of our inflatable boats and were able to carry more that way and just go down the rivers and creeks to get help to people that needed. Is Helene victims still getting the resources that they need? I know your group is only a couple dozen members. However, does it feel like once they leave, is there going to be a strain? And the recovery effort is going to be even more challenging ahead of Milton. Well, I think certainly there are resources there currently that have not been reassigned to Milton. So they will continue the work of recovery, if you will, and also be there to help provide some humanitarian relief unless this thing really goes far beyond what we think. Those resources probably won't be reassigned. They have moved some of the resources down, but that's due to their starting to complete their lifts, right? They're starting to have done complete grid searches on on areas of the county. And now really, it's it's it's time to in those areas to get that recovery work started rebuilding roads, bridges, getting access, all those things. And Bob, were those were those folks suffering from Helene that you were helping? Were they receptive of your help? I'm sure they were glad to see you. They certainly were. We felt a lot of grace and a lot of thankfulness from everyone that that we ran into. They were in spite of everything that they had lost. The people were incredible. Let's pivot over to the anticipation of Hurricane Milton now as you talk about those 80 members that will be heading there. Where will this crew be staying? What is their expected work and what will it look like leading up to the landfill? So currently they're at Camp Blanding, which is South and West of Jacksonville. They're going to stay there until the storm passes over there. If they move much closer, they might actually not be effective because they can't do anything with the with the strength of the storm. So they're going to stay on the outskirts. As soon as the storm passes, they'll be able to punch in, if you will, based upon the needs that they're going to get from command and start doing that search and rescue work. I think some will be by boat, some will be by foot, whatever it takes to help the people that will be affected. Bob, you might have shared this before when we had you on talking about Helene, but when it comes to any of these hurricanes, Milton, what is the level of expertise of the volunteers that go in? Do they have any special training? I'm sure they have certain skills, but there's anything particular that they have that makes what they do more adaptable and more relevant to doing these kind of going out and helping with these kind of destructive storms. So our task force certainly is highly trained in a swift water rescue boat, both boats, the inflatable as well as the John boats that can carry more people but can't really move if the water is moving that fast. So all of those kinds of things that there's building to get collapsed, we can also work to tunnel in if somebody happens to be in trap. It's an incredible amount of training that all of our people go through and it prepares them for days like tomorrow, quite frankly. How long do you think this team will be responding to Hurricane Milton in the days ahead? I think it's still up in the air in regards to the amount of damage. We anticipate they could go up full 14 days and they'll take over operational control about 10 o'clock tonight. So it could be 14 days from now. We'll be talking about trying to get them back home. Bob, we appreciate all your information and the update and what your task force is doing. And thank you for coming on with us to share this again. Thanks so much. You're very welcome. Thanks for having me. Program Manager for Colorado Task Force One, it's Bob Olme. Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on Chumba Casino.com. I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing. They're also playing Chumba Casino. 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