As Florida braces for Hurricane Irma, local crews are gearing up to travel to the coast to help with relief efforts.
The Butler County Emergency Management Agency will send a 16-person crew to Tallahassee Thursday morning. The team plans to stay for about two weeks.
Doug Wehmeyer with the Deerfield Township Police Department has been on four other missions, but even he admits you can never be too prepared.
“You typically run into situations when you wanted it last time, but you didn’t have it so you’ll never do it again. But it’s a hard decision to make,” Wehmeyer said.
Food, drinking water and cots to sleep on are essentials, but so is a sense of flexibility.
Matt Haverkos, Butler County Emergency Management Agency director, said the crew will travel to wherever there is a greater need.
“(We’re) down there to help out, bringing in the resources, and then as the storm comes in depending on where the damage goes we could assist the state emergency management office wherever they need us,” Haverkos said.
The trip to Florida is not the first time Butler County’s team has travelled to assist in the wake of a natural disaster; a crew went to New York after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The experiences in other states pay off locally, Wehmeyer said.
“Hands on, boots on the ground, real life experience when this type of event occurs in our agency or any type of emergency management or large disaster occurs we have experience,” Wehmeyer said.
