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Sacramento Fire Crews Ready To Help With Hurricane Florence

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Responders from Sacramento are on the ground in North Carolina ready to assist the victims of hurricane Florence.

A crew of 16 left on September 11 and drove 51 hours to the east coast.

Stationed about 60 miles inland in the city of Ayden, they were just out of reach Florence's fury when it first made landfall, but now they're dealing with heavy rain.

"It has not stopped raining for the past three or four days ever since this storm started," said Captain David Lauchner with the Sacramento Fire Department.

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With heavy rain comes flooding, that's the concern Lauchner said, anticipating the majority of their mission still ahead.

"We've helped clear some trees off the roads for people in the area, but as far as hurricane damage, there really wasn't any done up here to our knowledge that they needed us for, so now we're staging and ready for the waters coming over. That's when we expect all the calls to come in," he said.

There's a second team already on the ground in another part of the state, and 30 military medical responders are packed and on standby at Travis Air Force Base back in northern California.

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"We can help get the sickest of the sick out into a safe environment," said United States Air Force critical care nurse, Natalie Korona.

From wildfires here to hurricanes there, when disaster strikes Captain Lauchner says the burden is shared.

"It's an exciting time for us. We love doing our job and we got into this business to help people" he said. "And to be able to cross the country to a new area and help out with the devastation that they're expecting over here, we're honored to be here and help them out."

This is Lauchner's fourth hurricane deployment.

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