93.9 The Eagle – The News and Talk of Columbia, MO
Missouri Task Force One arrived at its staging area in College Station, Texas, early Wednesday, as the Gulf braces for Hurricane Laura.
The Boone County-based emergency response team left mid-Missouri on Tuesday night. The 25 members deployed will mostly focus on water rescues.
#MOTF1 Missouri Task Force activated by @fema in response to two tropical systems in the Gulf of Mexico. MO-TF1 is deploying a Type 4 Water Rescue Task Force. The team is made up of 25 personnel. 24 members are Swiftwater/Floodwater Rescue Specialists and Boat Operators
— Boone County Fire (@BooneCountyFire) August 25, 2020
More from The Associated Press:
Forecasters say Hurricane Laura is rapidly intensifying and will become a “catastrophic” Category 4 hurricane before landfall. It’s churning toward Texas and Louisiana, gathering wind and water that swirls over much of the Gulf of Mexico. The National Hurricane Center says Laura’s maximum sustained winds are near 110 mph with higher gusts. Senior hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart says that some people are going to wake up Thursday morning and not believe what happened. He says storm surge heights could top 15 feet in some areas, and what doesn’t get blown down by the wind could easily get knocked down by water pushing well inland.
