North Carolina is supporting the State of Florida after Hurricane Ian.
“Although we mourn five deaths and incurred some damage, it’s clear North Carolina missed the worst of this storm,” said Governor Roy Cooper. “Now that some of our emergency resources are no longer needed at home, we are sending additional assistance to our Florida neighbors, who have a long road of recovery ahead.”
In response to requests Florida placed through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, North Carolina is providing 16 personnel on two incident management teams, which will help Lee County, Florida coordinate response and recovery operations. Lee County is home to Fort Myers and Cape Coral, some of the locations hardest hit by Hurricane Ian and where about half of the deaths from the storm have occurred.
The team of state and local emergency managers and first responders will be in Florida for two weeks to support Lee County emergency managers in coordinating ongoing response operations including search, distribution of relief supplies, damage assessment and beginning the recovery process. The team is traveling with all the supplies and equipment they need to set up a basecamp and be self-sufficient while working, as most of the infrastructure in the area is destroyed and services are unavailable.
North Carolina also provided experts in emergency communications who have supported the Florida State Emergency Operations Center since before the storm made landfall. Personnel are from the FirstTech Office in the NC Department of Information Technology and from North Carolina Emergency Management and have covered a two-week deployment period.
North Carolina is also filling a Florida request for a public information officer to assist at the state EOC for a two-week period.
“We will remain ready to deploy other resources as needed and continue to look for ways to support our partners in Florida and the ongoing response and recovery efforts in the impacted communities.” said NC Emergency Management Director William Ray.