New Orleans is sending help to Florida, as the Sunshine State anticipates several days of dangerous weather thanks to Hurricane Dorian.
New Orleans Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Colin Arnold says all of the Gulf Coast states are ready to lend each other a hand, even as their own areas run the risk of tropical weather.
"Currently, we have from the New Orleans area, nineteen fireman and EMS technicians, paramedics, that are headed as part of a larger Louisiana group of over a hundred," said Arnold.
The Louisiana-1 Urban Search and Rescue Team also includes members of the St. Tammany Parish Fire Department.
"They'll be staging in Jacksonville and be able to respond statewide for any type of search-and-rescue incident, realizing that in our area we have specifically, swift-water rescue teams that are some of the best in the country," Arnold explained.
Arnold says these rescuers are battle-tested:
"Many of the members of this same team that are going to the response for Dorian right now were some of the first search-and-rescue technicians into Mexico Beach in Florida for Michael."
Arnold says their personnel may be deployed up to three weeks, but will be recalled to New Orleans if a storm threatens here.