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Nebraska Task Force One on standby after Hurricane Michael

Posted at 4:39 PM, Oct 12, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-12 17:39:39-04

The trucks at the Nebraska Task Force one facility in Lincoln are completely loaded up, just in case they're called over to the disaster zone in Florida.

Just a month after Nebraska Task Force One was sent to North Carolina to provide relief to victims of Hurricane Florence. Training coordinator Lloyd Mueller says FEMA put his team on alert Wednesday evening, several hours after Hurricane Michael devastated the Florida panhandle. 

"I was heavily anticipating going out yesterday, I was ready to go," says Lloyd Mueller, training coordinator for Nebraska Task One. 

45 task force members and their trucks full of supplies were ready to roll but the unit was taken off alert status Thursday evening. 

"I think with this hurricane, the reason why we didn't get deployed was because they had a significant amount of people that did go inland and they just didn't have those rescues like they did in the previous ones" says Mueller. 

The unit remains on standby and if conditions change they could get sent to Florida, that's why trucks remain ready at their warehouse building in Lincoln.

If they do go, the mission would be different than four weeks ago. 

"With the Carolinas it was hitting on that coast line, slow moving storm, dropped a lot of rain, a lot of flooding. This hurricane, with Hurricane Michael, fast moving storm, lots of winds, less rain," says Mueller. 

Due to the damage caused by 150 MPH winds, structural engineers are a part of unit. So they can steady a building before they go in for a rescue.

"When we come upon a building that needs a rescue, they're our first line, here's what we need to do to make this structure stable and then we can start sending rescue teams in," says Mueller.