Oregon Emergency Responders Deploy To Florida

SALEM, OR — An Incident Management Team from Oregon will head to Florida on Wednesday to assist with the state's emergency response to Hurricane Michael, which is expected to make landfall along Florida's Panhandle Gulf Coast the same day.

The team, made up of Oregon State Fire Marshal personnel, will join all other teams from across the nation also participating in the Emergency Management Assistance Compact to support the Florida Division of Emergency Management. On Tuesday, Michael was upgraded to a Category 3 Major Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.

The National Weather Service on Monday announced the storm "could develop into a potentially catastrophic event for the northeastern Gulf Coast."

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Oregon's responding IMT will likely work in the field with one of the affected counties, state fire marshal officials said, noting the IMT chief leading the team is actually a native Floridian.

Oregon's team is scheduled to remain in Florida for 14 days.

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