TAYLOR COUNTY, Fla. – Miami Fire Rescue’s special operations chief leads the dozens of trained first responders with the autonomous South Florida Search and Rescue Task Force 2 who responded to Hurricane Helene’s aftermath.
Christopher Diaz was on duty Sunday. He took a break during This Week In South Florida to report that they had set up a command post with tents and maps in Keaton Beach, a Florida Gulf Coast community in Taylor County.
“Sometimes all you have to do is put a hand on somebody’s shoulder and say, ‘We are here to help you! We are here for you!”
Diaz said there were overturned vehicles, structures destroyed and damaged, and downed power lines in the area. He said he had also witnessed the kindness, generosity, and solidarity surfacing amid catastrophe.
“The most surprising thing is the resiliency,” Diaz said about Helene’s devastating destruction.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response system team deployed the Miami-based task force after the Category 4 hurricane landed Thursday near Perry in Taylor County.
“We are into day 3 of our operation, conducting primary searchers in these devastated areas,“ Diaz said. “We are going door to door looking through windows, looking and assessing damage. We are assisting the citizens coming in and out, providing them with medical resources.”
The task force made an initial 14-day commitment.
INTERACTIVE SLIDERS
Satellite images by Google Maps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show areas before and after Hurricane Helene in Florida’s Taylor and Levy counties. Slide the middle bar to view the changes.
DEKLE BEACH
DARK ISLAND
KEATON BEACH
CEDAR KEY
STEINHATCHEE
FISH CREEK
BIRD ISLAND
EZELL BEACH
Sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite images on Maptiler with OpenStreetMap, Google Earth and Google Map views, and Knightlab JuxtaposeX (Opensource code)