Task Force 1 members reflect on Hurricane Helene recovery efforts after two-week deployment

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Seventeen members of Missouri Task Force 1 returned to Boone County on Wednesday after spending two weeks in parts of North Carolina and Georgia after Hurricane Helene made landfall.

According to a social media post from the Boone County Fire Protection District, the task force had to extend its typical 14-day deployment due to "ongoing needs" in the field.

Members were deployed an additional 10 days and relocated to Black Mountain, North Carolina, on Wednesday, about 20 miles west of Marion, North Carolina, where the group was previously stationed.

Boone County Fire Protection District Assistant Fire Chief Gale Blomenkamp said this marks the longest members have been deployed since the task force was created, which was in 1997. According to Blomenkamp, the 17 members were swapped out with 17 other members, due to other work commitments.

Blomenkamp said members remain on standby and could possibly be deployed to Florida or other places they're needed after Hurricane Milton makes landfall.

"They want to, they want to hold us in theater until that hurricane goes through and they make sure that they don't have any issues with Hurricane Milton," Blomenkamp said. "Once it passes through, then they'll have the option to either hold on to us for more time or they can release us back to the back to FEMA and then we could be reassigned."

David Gehm was one of the deployed members who returned home on Wednesday.

Gehm served as a HAZMAT specialist during the deployment, which he said consisted of monitoring possible contaminated waters. Gehm said he's served on the task force for 26 years and has responded to several hurricanes.

However, he said the conditions of North Carolina were unique.

"It is different because the other ones I've been on is like Fort Myers and Florida, it's water surge and floods and things like that," Gehm said. "This one was strange because it was in the mountains. It's not what we expected."

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