California team deployed to Florida to aid that state’s Hurricane Ian response
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that a five-person team of emergency management and mass care specialists had been deployed to Florida to aid the state’s response to the destructive Hurricane Ian.
“California stands with the people of Florida,” he said in a press statement. “Our state is all too familiar with the impact of natural disasters and we stand ready to provide any needed aid and support to the communities impacted by this horrific storm.”
Newsom had received a request for aid from the Florida Division of Emergency Management and had Cal OES send a unit to facilitate shelters for those displaced by the hurricane and support Florida’s State Operation Center in Tallahassee.
More personnel and resources will be made available if necessary, he said.
Cal OES had previously approved the deployment of local government firefighters to Florida as part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue Response System. Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, Orange County Fire Authority, Riverside Fire Department, Sacramento Metropolitan Fire Department, Sacramento County Fire Department, Chula Vista Fire Department and San Diego Fire Department are on the ground lending aid.
The deployment builds on California’s far-reaching efforts to aid other states during times of need, the press release stated. Already this year, California has sent firefighters to Oregon, firefighters and disaster recovery experts to New Mexico and firefighters and a public information specialist to Montana. In 2021, fire engines were deployed to Oregon to suppress the Bootleg Fire and Specialized Urban Search and Rescue Resources teams to Florida to assist in the Surfside tower collapse.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsom provided ventilators to Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada and Delaware and also sent millions of items of PPE to neighboring states along the West Coast.