An Oklahoma swift water rescue team found itself in the right place at the right time and saved four Tennessee residents from flood waters last week, fire officials said.
The team was headed to North Carolina on Thursday to help with Hurricane Helene response efforts when law enforcement and bystanders near Erwin, Tennessee, flagged them down to let them know an elderly man was clinging to a porch as flood waters surged around him, said John Chenoweth, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma City Fire Department on Monday.
After the team rescued the man and his dog, it saved another two people and two more dogs trapped by flood waters, Chenoweth said.
The task force also responded to a woman trapped in a home that had been swept downstream. As the team approached, the woman jumped from a window into the water and was rescued, officials said.
The task force is among two swift water rescue teams that Oklahoma sent to the region. The teams were deployed in response to requests from North Carolina and Florida through the Emergency Management Assistance Compact, a state-to-state mutual aid system, said Keli Cain, a spokesperson for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
Up to 29 inches of rain fell across the Appalachian Mountains as Hurricane Helene moved through the region last week, leading to life-threatening flooding and landslides. As many as 30 people have been reported dead in North Carolina while others are still missing. Officials said at least 121 died in six states as the storm moved through Florida’s Gulf Coast and up into Virginia. Hundreds have been reported missing.
The second task force from Oklahoma, which includes Tulsa Fire Department personnel, was initially dispatched to Florida, but as of Monday was en route to North Carolina to help with ongoing search and rescue efforts, Cain said. The state has also sent a Tulsa incident management team to the hurricane-impacted region.
The Oklahoma City task force team is no longer conducting swift water rescues. It has now switched to search and rescue.
Each task force has 16 people.
The Oklahoma Task Force is composed of 10 Oklahoma City firefighters, two Oklahoma City police officers, one IT technician, one Norman firefighter, one Tinker Air Force Base firefighter and one Yukon firefighter, Chenoweth said.
The teams are expected to remain in the region for up to 14 days, though the deployment could be shortened or extended as needed, officials said.
Oklahomans will always answer the call to help those in need, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement announcing the deployment.
“I’m grateful for our elite first responders in Tulsa and Oklahoma City for their willingness to step up and help our neighbors once again,” he said.
This story is from nonprofit news outlet Oklahoma Voice.