VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – FEMA’s Virginia Task Force 2 Urban Search and Rescue Team returned home Monday after helping with hurricane-ravaged Florida.
Task Force 2 is made of firefighters from Chesapeake, Hampton, Henrico, James City County, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, York County, as well as Navy Region Mid-Atlantic and Emergency Physicians of Tidewater.
On September 24, 45 members were deployed from the Virginia Beach Harry E. Diezel Fire Training Center to help victims of Hurricane Ian. An additional 35 members were deployed on September 29. News 3 crews were there as both teams loaded their gear and left Virginia Beach.
The teams ended up northwest of Fort Myers which saw a lot of flooding and other damage from Hurricane Ian.
"We had a number of folks who were injured, could not self-evacuate," said Captain Jon Rigolo, rescue team manager. "We worked a number of highrise buildings, senior citizens who were trapped on upper floors and couldn't come down, so we brought them down."
VATF-2 has conducted search and rescue operations in the aftermath of numerous disasters including the Oklahoma City bombing and at the Pentagon after the 9/11 attacks. The last time the team was activated and deployed was in August of 2021 in response to Hurricane Ida.
