Oklahomans Help Florida With Hurricane Aftermath

Florida is now recovering from two hurricanes, Helene and Milton. Teams from across Oklahoma are there helping in the aftermath.

“We've seen quite a bit of tree damage, which we're very familiar with, after three tornadoes in Mayes County and the Father's Day storm for 2023 it was very similar to a lot of tree debris that we've seen before,” said Michael Dunham. 

Michael Dunham serves as the Deputy Director of Emergency Management in Mayes County. He is with a Swift Water Rescue Team made up of firefighters, GRDA officers, members of the Quapaw Marshal Service, and others. They have been staged in Polk County, Florida, all week.

“So now they've moved us to Tampa. Tampa is a big base a big base camp. I mean, there's probably, I have to probably say, no less than, probably close to 500 responders that are on site here,” said Dunham. 

Dunham's team is just one of many from Oklahoma. OG&E has linemen there working to restore power in Sarasota, with more than 100 line crews deployed. A task force made up of emergency managers, Oklahoma Highway Patrol officers, and other first responders has been in Tallahassee staging for incident management.

“I know quite a few of us are missing our wives and kids and our puppy dogs. But we all want to eventually get home. But we knew we what we signed up for, is that we're going to give them the best 10 days we got, if they needed to, and if, if not, we'll come home and enjoy ourselves,” said Dunham. 

Some teams are already headed back to Oklahoma, while Dunham's team is deployed for a new assignment outside of Tampa tomorrow.