More members from Missouri Task Force 1 head to Puerto Rico

The Federal Emergency Management Agency activated a K-9 group capable of detecting human remains from Missouri Task Force 1 late Thursday night.

Gale Blomenkamp, the task force spokesperson, said the seven-member team flew out of Kansas City early Saturday morning, heading to Puerto Rico.

Blomenkamp said the goal is to have the team in place before Hurricane Jose moves toward the island late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

The seven members will make a total of 13 members from MO-TF1 deployed to help with Hurricane Irma rescues and aftermath.

Blomenkamp said FEMA has a national rotation between all of the 28 task forces across the country. He said because MO-TF1 was one of the three closest to Texas, a team of about 80 were activated. But because there are other task forces closer to Florida, MO-TF1 is further down the rotation list, so the full team has not been asked to be activated.

Blomenkamp said there is still a chance that MO-TF1 is activated to help with Hurricane Irma efforts.