Task Force 1 finishing Helene work, getting ready for Hurricane Milton

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

A Columbia-based search and rescue team that has spent nearly two weeks in the Southeast helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene will soon move on to Hurricane Milton.

Task Force 1 planned to conclude its final North Carolina mission Tuesday before preparing for Milton.

Milton was a Category 4 storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday and is expected to hit Florida's west coast late Wednesday or early Thursday. It comes on the heels of Hurricane Helene, which hit Florida's Big Bend area as a Category 4 before moving inland and dumping dozens of inches of rain.

More than 200 people have been confirmed dead from Helene, most of them associated with flooding in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.

That's where Task Force 1 has been stationed for most of the two weeks they've been gone. The Boone County Fire Protection District, which hosts Task Force 1, says in a news release that 17 team members will rotate out before Milton hits.

The final mission in McDowell County, North Carolina, involved welfare checks of specific addresses, the news release says.

The incoming team members left Columbia on Tuesday afternoon and expect to arrive in Charlotte, North Carolina, Tuesday night.

Task Force 1's staging location for Milton was unknown Tuesday.

Local utilities have also sent line crews to help in the recovery from Helene and ahead of Milton. Crews from Fulton and Boone Electric Cooperative left for the area this week.