Missouri Task Force One to return from Florida Monday

BOONE COUNTY, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri Task Force One will return to its headquarters at Boone County Fire Protection District Monday afternoon.

Forty-five members of Missouri Task Force One have been in Florida helping relief efforts after Hurricane Idalia since they deployed last Monday. Sunday, the task force announced it received demobilization orders and are heading back home.

Missouri Task Force One was originally deployed to Pensacola but relocated to Panama City Friday night. Friday, the team completed search and damage assessments for more than 550 square miles.

Task Force teams from Texas and Tennessee were also deployed to Florida.

The Red Cross has 50 Missourians Deployed across the state as well, eight of whom are from Mid-Missouri.

Four were sent to Florida last week, three people are still in Hawaii, and one person is in Texas.

"They're mostly helping in the sheltering capacity, and in some cases, they're doing damage assessments, going out to see the extent of the damage," said Red Cross Director Sharon Watson.

This time of year is considered to be one of the Red Cross's busiest times of year.

"A lot of things come together this time of year with wildfires out on the West Coast and hurricanes on the East Coast or sometimes on the Texas Gulf," said Watson. "So we always are training people to make sure that we have enough people to send out because we want to make sure we're able to support those other parts of the country." 

Watson said the average deployment within the U.S. mainland is 2 weeks, Hawaii's deployment will last for three weeks, and crews will stay longer if asked to.