The Indiana Task Force 1 insignia is pictured on one of their support vehicles, Sunday, Aug. 4, 2024, in Indianapolis. Provided photo.
Indiana Task Force One is returning home after an extended deployment responding to two hurricanes.
The state’s Federal Emergency Management Agency-designated urban search and rescue task force announced Monday morning they were being officially demobilized from its mission in response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The task force had been deployed for nearly 20 days, and is expected to return to Indiana on Tuesday.
On Sept. 24, eighty members of the task force were deployed as part of a Type 1 deployment ahead of Hurricane Helene. A Type 1 deployment is a full deployment of the task force, providing full rescue capabilities, including hazmat, medical, K-9s and structural specialists.
Initially deployed to Florida, they shifted to North Carolina to assist in the aftermath of the devastation caused by Helene there last month. Last week, they received word they were being reassigned to Florida ahead of Hurricane Milton, again being asked to assist in a response to the storm. IN-TF-1 has been there since then.
The initial deployment includes local first responders Lt. Joe Kipfer, a rescue specialist from the Bargersville Community Fire Department; Capt. Daniel McElyea, a rescue specialist from the Franklin Fire Department; and firefighter Michael Combs and paramedic Chelsea Spina, a communications specialist and a medical specialist, respectively, from the White River Township Fire Department. With Milton’s, Bargersville Fire Deputy Chief Mike Pruitt, an IN-TF1 spokesperson, left for Florida as part of an additional deployment, along with an unknown number of personnel from the Greenwood Fire Department.
As of Oct. 7, over 107,000 “FEMA waypoints” were recorded across five states amongst the task force teams that responded in Helene’s aftermath. IN-TF1 was directly responsible for 421 of those, task force officials said.
A waypoint is any structure, vehicle, body of water, land area or pile of debris searched for victims or injured. For perspective, some of the debris piles IN-TF1 has seen were over 300 feet high and 30 yards in length. Searches of bodies of water included Sonar technology, boat-based searches and bank searches assisted by live-find and human-remain K-9s, officials said.
